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http://www.archive.org/details/throughjohnstownOObeal 


REV.    D.   J.    BEALE,    D.  D. 


^AUG    1    1957 


THROUGH 


The  Johnstown  Flood. 


BY  A  SURVIVOR. 


A  THRILLING,  TRUTHFUL,  AND  OFFICIAL  HISTORY 


MOST  APPALLING  CALAMITY  OF  MODERN  TIMES. 


PREPARED    IN    RESPONSE   TO   A    REQUEST   OF 
THE   LEADING   CITIZENS    OF    JOHNSTOWN   AND    MANY   OF    THE    FOREMOST    MEN   OF   THE   NATION, 

/ 
By  rev.  DAVID  J.  BEALE,  D.  D. 


ELEGANTLY    AND    APPROPRIATELY    ILLUSTRATED. 


EDGEWOOD    PUBLISHING   COMPANY. 

1890. 


Copyright,  1890,  by  Hubbard  Brothkes. 


NOTE. 

This  volume  has  been  prepared  by  Dr.  Beale  in  response  to 
an  urgent  request  from  many  leading  citizens  of  Johnstown  and 
eminent  men  of  the  nation,  among  them  the  following  : 

His  Excellency,  Governor  Beaver,  of  Pennsylvania. 
Hon.  John  Wanamaker,  Postmaster  General. 
Chauncey  M.  Depew,  New  York  City. 
His  Honor,  Hugh  J.  Grant,  Mayor  of  New  York. 
Hon.  F.  C.  Latrobe,  Ex-Mayor  of  Baltimore. 
General  D.  H.  Hastings,  Harrisburg,  Pa. 
James  B.  Scott,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Rev.  H.  L.  Ch-apman,  D.D.,  Pastor  M.  E.  Church,  Johnstown. 
Rev.  R.  a.  Fink,  D.D.,  Pastor  Lutheran  Church,  Johnstown. 
Rev.  Jas.  P.  Tahaney,  Pastor  St.  John's  R.  C.  Church,  Johnstown. 
.  Joseph  Cook,  Boston. 
Lt.  Col.  J.  L.  Spangler,  Bellefonte,  Pa. 
Rev.  Howard  Crosby,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York  City. 
Rev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  John  Hall,  D.D.,  New  York  City. 
Hon.  Thomas   V.  Cooper,  Media,  Pa. 
W.  Horace  Rose,  Esq.,  Johnstown. 
Colonel  John  P.  Linton,  Johnstown. 
C.  Sheridan,  M.D.,  Johnstown. 
Rev.  Samuel  J.  Niccolls,  D.D.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Rev.  B.  M.  Palmer,  D.D.,  New  Orleans,  La. 
Rev.  Wayland  Hoyt,  D.D.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
Rev.  M.  Caro,  Rabbi  Jewish  Synagogue,  Johnstown. 

(5) 


NOTE. 


Herman  Baumer,  Postmaster,  Johnstown. 

F.   D.  Jolly,  Esq.,  Johnstown. 

Rev.  F.  L.  Patton,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  Princeton  College. 

Elliot  F.  Shepard,  Proprietor  Mail  and  Express,  N,  Y. 

Rev.  H.  L.  Wayland,  D.D.,  Editor  National  Baptist. 

Rev.  J.  C.  Greer,  Pastor  U.  P.  Church,  Johnstown. 

T.  A.  Benford,  Proprietor  Hulbert  House,  Johnstown. 

B.  K.  Jamison,  Banker,  Philadelphia. 

George  H.  Thomas,  of  Drexel  &  Co.,  Bankers,  Philadelphia. 

Rev.  D.  M.  Miller,  Pastor  Conemaugh  Presbyterian  Church. 


REVERED  AND  VENERABLE  MOTHER, 

IN    HER    EIGHTY-NINTH    YEAR,   WHOSE    GODLY    FAITH    SUSTAINED    HER    THROUGH    SIX    DAYS    OF 

MATERNAL   ANXIETY   CONCERNING   OUR    FATE,    OF   WHICH   SHE   COULD   GET    NO    TIDINGS;    TO 

MY   BELOVED   WIFE,  ALWAYS   THE   INSPIRATION   AND   STRENGTH  OF  MY  LIFE,  BUT  NEVER 

SO   MUCH   SO   AS    WHEN    WE    WERE    STRUGGLING   TOGETHER   WITH    OUR    CHILDREN 

AMID    THE    RAGING   WATERS;     TO   MY   DEAR   CHILDREN,   MADE   DEARER    TO   US 

FOR   THE   PERIL   THROUGH    WHICH,   BY   THE   HELP   OF   GOD,    WE   CARRIED 

THEM  ;    TO    MY    FELLOW-CITIZENS   AND   FELLOW-SUFFERERS  OF   JOHNS- 

■     TOWN,   WITH   WHOM   THE   TIES    OF     FRIEND    AND    PASTOR     HAVE 

BEEN    RIVETED   BY   THE   BLOWS    OF  THIS  TERRIFIC  CALAMITY 

— THIS      BOOK      IS      DEDICATED      BY      THE      AUTHOR. 


(7) 


PREFACE. 

As  the  sun  sank  behind  the  western  foothills  of  the  Alle- 
gheny Mountains,  Wednesday  evening,  May  the  29th,  1889,  he 
gilded  with  glory  the  spires  of  a  score  of  churches,  shed  his  part- 
ing beams  upon  more  than  five  thousand  dwellings,  and  lighted  to 
their  happy  homes  over  thirty  thousand  people  in  the  peaceful, 
picturesque  and  industrious  Valley  of  the  Conemaugh.  When,  on 
Saturday,  the  1st  day  of  June,  the  sun  again,  for  the  first  time, 
looked  out  from  behind  the  thick  clouds,  peeping  over  the  eastern 
crest  of  the  Alleghenies,  he  saw,  indeed,  the  same  deep  valley  and 
the  same  mountain  peaks,  but  oh !  how  changed  was  Johnstown  ! 
The  scene  of  destruction  presented  was  unparalleled  in  the  annals 
of  American  history,  and  for  suddenness,  destructiveness  and  awful 
horrors,  perhaps,  unsurpassed  since  the  Noachian  deluge.  Within 
a  few  minutes  nearly  four  thousand  human  beings  had  been 
launched  into  eternity,  twenty-five  hundred  houses  had  been 
utterly  demolished,  and  property  destroyed  the  worth  of  which 
has  been  estimated  by  millions.  The  business  man,  the  physician, 
the  lawyer,  the  clergyman,  the  school-teacher,  the  clerk,  the  me- 
chanic, the  laborer,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  stranger  and  the 
•citizen,  the  old  and  the  young,  parents  and  children,  the  good  and 
the  bad — all,  all  had  gone  down  together  into  a  common  watery 
grave. 

(9) 


lO  PREFACE. 

So  many  persons  have  expressed  their  desire  to  have  written 
a  correct  description  and  trustworthy  record  of  this  great  calamity 
that  I  have  been  induced,  upon  the  soHcitation  of  a  number  of  our 
citizens  and  others,  to  undertake  the  work.  They  represented  to 
me  that  my  personal  and  pastoral  relations  to  Johnstown,  my  own 
experience,  my  official  connection  with  the  work  of  rescue  and  re- 
construction, imposed  it  upon  me  as  a  duty.  I  could  not  possibly 
describe  all  that  occurred  during,  and  subsequently  to,  the  flood  ; 
but  as  a  participant  in  the  terrible  tragedy,  as  an  eye-witness, 
of  the  frightful  scenes,  and  as  superintendent  of  the  morgues, 
brought  into  contact  with  most  of  the  dead  and  living  who  were 
overwhelmed  in  the  flood,  I  trust  that  my  account  will  prove  an 
acceptable,  as  it  certainly  is  a  reliable,  one  in  all  it  contains. 

I  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  many  of  my  fellow-citizens 
and  fellow-sufferers  of  Johnstown  for  statements  of  their  own  ex- 
periences and  for  other  favors  furnished  me  ;  also  to  the  many 
gentlemen  and  ladies  who  labored  for  our  relief,  and  whose  offi- 
cial reports  add  so  much  to  the  value  of  these  pages  ;  also  to  those 
whose  artistic  and  editorial  skill  and  care  have  done  so  much  for 

the  appearance  of  the  volume. 

David  J.  Beale. 


CONXENTS. 


THE  OVERWHELMING  FLOOD. 

PAGE 

I. — Personal  Experience  of  the  Author  ......  23 

Decoration  Day  in  Johnstown — A  rainy  night — Rapid  rise 
of  the  streams — Comments  on  the  freshet — The  great  avalanche 
— In  the  attic — The  rush  of  terrors — Rescues — In  Alma  Hall — 
Darkness,  destitution,  death — The  scene  at  dawn — On  the  hills 
— The  women  and  children — Scene  from  the  hills — Gathering 
valuables. 

2. — Peril  and  Escape  of  W.  Horace  Rose,  Attorney -at- Law     .         .  32 

The  swollen  waters — Former  freshets — Scenes  about  the 
town — Conference  with  Mr.  Dibert — Still  rising — The  deadly 
crash — In  the  wreck — Struggling  for  life — Afloat  on  a  roof — 
Five  o'clock — At  rest — A  night  of  terror. 

(") 


1 2  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

3. — Statements  Regarding  Others  ......  43 

A  soldier's  opinion — How  the  dam  broke — Narrow  escape 
of  the  "  Limited" — First  rush  of  the  torrent — At  Mineral  Point 
— At  East  Conemaugh — Rev.  Dr.  T.  H.  Robinson's  experience 
— Dr.  George  M.  Graham's  narrative — Hairbreadth  escapes — 
Woodvale — Conemaugh  Borough — At  Johnstown  proper — 
The  Hulbert  House — Dr.  Chapman — Rev.  James  A.  Lane — 
Rev.  D.  M.  Miller — Many  other  narratives. 

4. — The  Disaster  Scientifically  Viewed     ......  84 

The  original  dam  at  the  reservoir  on  South  Fork — Two  plans 
considered — Abandonment  of  the  reservoir — Break  in  the  first 
dam — Change  of  ownership — Reconstruction  and  elevation — 
Excessive  rainfall  of  May  31st — Track  of  the  flood — Manner  of 
its  advance — Velocity,  tonnage  and  momentum  of  the  flood — 
Remarkable  effects  of  the  torrent — Perpendicularity  of  the  face 
— Burying  power — Elements  of  its  destructiveness. 


n. 

CARE  OF  THE  SURVIVORS. 

I. — What  We  Did  for  Ourselves    .......  lOO 

The  first  perils — Thieves — "  Relic-hunters  " — Moral  vultures 
— Our  shattered  borough  organization — Isolated  for  a  time — 
Citizens'  committees — Difficult  and  sorrowful  duties. 


CONTENTS.  1 3 

PAGE 
2. — The  Country  to  the  Rescue        .......  io6 

What  Pittsburgh  did — Its  effective  ReHef  Committee — Early 
start — Energetic  efforts — Money,  men,  supplies — Demands  for 
food — Bureau  of  Information — The  Ladies'  Committee — Mr. 
Collins'  report  to  Mr.  Scott — Aids  of  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Com- 
mittee— Receipts  and  disbursements  through  the  committee. 

What  Philadelphia  did — Her  Citizens'  Permanent  Relief  Com- 
mittee assembled — Money  appropriated — Surgeons  and  sup- 
plies sent — Money  pouring  in — Help  from  other  cities. 


3. — The  Commissary  Department    .......  143 

The  scene  on  June  ist — Destitution  of  provisions — Willing 
helpers — The  B.  &  O.  Road  opened — Depots  of  supplies — Su- 
perintendents of  distribution — Colonel  Spangler's  report  to 
General  Hastings — The  population  needing  aid — Methods  of 
distribution  —  Special  workers  —  Consolidated  report — Stock 
transferred  to  the  Citizens'  Committee — Values  of  relief  dis- 
tributed— Closing  suggestions — Workers  in  the  Commissary 
Department — Summary  of  supplies  furnished. 


4. — The  Hospitals 173 

Need  of  hospitals — The  first  patient — Hospital  equipment — 
Faithful  workers — Self-sacrificing  nurses — Work  in  the  Dispen- 
sary— Summary  of  service  rendered. 


14  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

5. — The  Work  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  .....  lyj 

Dr.  Lee's  report — State  Board  of  Health — Sudden  rise  of 
the  river — Particulars  of  the  calamity — Duty  of  the  Board — 
At  the  scene  of  suffering — A  gigantic  task — The  Sanitary 
Committee — Distinguished  toilers — Disinfecting  corps — Pitts- 
burgh's sanitary  police — Sources  of  water  supply — Sanitary 
districts  —  Disinfectants  employed — Work  accomplished  — 
Food,  shelter  and  instructions — Difficulties  of  the  work. 

HI. 

CARE  OF  THE  DEAD. 

I. — Concerning  Morgues  ........         204. 

The  many  dead — Extemporized  morgues — Questionable 
helpers — Valuables  in  peril — Workers  in  the  morgues — Lists 
of  the  dead  :  at  Morgue  A  (p.  207) ;  at  Morgue  B  (p.  221) ; 
at  Morgue  C  (p.  225);  at  Morgue  D  (p.  256)  ;  at  Morgue  E 
(p.  262) ;  at  Morgue  F  (p.  264) ;  at  Morgue  G  (p.  265) ; 
at  Morgue  H  (p.  273). 

2. — In  the  Cemeteries       .         .  .         .  .          .          .  275 

Burial  places  for  our  dead — Transferring  the  unknown — 
Recognizing  loved  ones — Number  of  the  reinterred. 

IV. 

THE  WORLD'S  SYMPATHY. 

I. — Shown  by  Letters,  Checks  and  Voluntary  Assistance         .         .         2^% 


CONTENTS.  I  5 

PAGE 
Unity    of    mankind — Universal    sympathy — From    China — 

From  Italy — From  Australia — From  Scotland — Overwhelmed 

with  letters  and  telegrams — From  Philadelphia — From  Ohio — 

From     New    York — From    Savannah — From     Charleston — 

From  Baltimore — From  other  cities. 

2. — Shown    by    Churches,    Secret    Societies,  the    Red    Cross    So- 
ciety, etc.       ..........         28/ 

Miss  Clara  Barton — Her  assistants — Resolutions  of  the 
Cambria  County  Medical  Society — The  Union  Benevolent 
Association — The  Infirmary — The  Ladies'  Branch. 

3. — Services  Rendered  by  the  Press  ......         293: 

The  ubiquitous  reporters — A  generous,  active  company — 
Their  helpful  reports — Colonel  Shepard's  assurances — The 
Pittsburgh  journalists — The  Philadelphia  staff — Mr.  Brown's 
journey — The  press  of  Johnstown. 

4. — The  World's  Charity  and  Fund  Distribution — The  Local  Fi- 
nance Committee  and  the  State  Flood  Commission  .  .  301 
The  current  of  charity — Abuses  of  opportunity — Pittsburgh 
Chamber  of  Commerce — The  State  Flood  Commission — 
Dissatisfaction — Members  of  Commission — Delay  in  distribu- 
tion— Work  of  the  Board  of  Inquiry — Indignation  meeting — 
Classification  of  claimants — Further  delays — Resolutions  of 
the  citizens — Statement  of  the  Flood  Relief  Commission — 
Moneys  received  and  disbursed — Probable  property  losses — 
Claims  of  widows. 


J  6  CONTENTS. 

V. 
REBUILDING.— RESTORATION.— RECONSTRUCTION. 

PAGE 

I. — Private  Residences  and  Places  of  Business          .          .          .          .  315 

The  need  of  shelter — Homeless  thousands — Tents  and 
shanties — How  to  rebuild — Oklahoma  houses  —  Hughes' 
houses — Report  on  the  efforts  to  rebuild — Work  accomplished. 

2. — The  Schools  and  the  Children  .......  325 

Happy  children  — The  Fenn  family —  Offers  to  adopt 
orphans — Heroic  Joe  Dixon — Resuming  the  Sunday-schools 
— Reopening  the  public  schools — Teachers  who  perished. 

3. — The  Churches    ..........          331 

The  first  Lord's  day — Churches  destroyed — Pastors  lost — 
Denominational  aid — Churches  as  morgues — The  first  service 
— Unshaken  faith — Amount  of  denominational  aid — Church 
relief  efforts. 

VI. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 
I. — Consolidation    ..........  333 

Mr.  Moxham's  steady  effort — Desirability  of  consolidation 
— Other  helpers — Population  of  the  new  Johnstown — Probable 
additions. 

2. — Additional  Echoes     .........  339 

Statements  from  survivors  of  the   flood — William  F.  Lewis 


CONTENTS.  1 7 

PAGE 

—Alexander  N.  Hart— Dr.  Edward  W.  Matthews— W.  B. 
Tice — Colonel  John  P.  Linton — Charles  R.  Phipps — Edward 
Mayhew — John  Brady — Miss  J.  Eouise  Mueller — Mrs.  Mary 
Hamilton — Henry  Viering — Rev.  Dr.  Davin — Notable  inci- 
dents— Tokens  of  sympathy — From  Rev.  T.  DeWitt  Talmage 
— From  Governor  Beaver. 

3. — The  Calamities  of  Johnstown     .......  385 

The  railroad  calamity  of  1866 — The  fire  of  June  24th,  1889 — 
The  Opera  House  catastrophe  of  December  loth,  1889 — Dr. 
Talmage's  picturing  of  the  ruin  of  the  flood. 

4. — Personal  Sketches     .........  390 

Arthur  J.  Moxham — Governor  James  A.  Beaver — General 
D.  H.  Hastings — Rev.  Alonzo  Potter  Diller — Rev.  George 
Wagoner,  M.D.— Rev.  Edward  W.  Jones,  D.D.— Rev.  J.  Phillip 
Lichtenberg  —  John  Fenn — John  Dibert  —  James  P.  McCon- 
aughey — Howard  J.  Roberts — Harry  G.  Rose — Others  of  the 
Bar — Dr.  L.  T.  Beam — Other  physicians — John  G.  Alexander. 

5. — Apocryphal  Stories  .........         405 

The  "  Paul  Revere  "  of  Johnstown — The  miracle  of  the  Vir- 
gin's statue — Bibles  burned  and  faith  abandoned. 

6. — The  Flood  Commission's  Work         ......         414 

Last  meeting  of  the  Commission  — Work  reported  —  Funds 
received  and  spent — New  plans  of  aid — Summary  of  work. 
7. — The  Lesson  of  the  Flood  .          .......         417 


1 8  CONTENTS. 

VII. 

HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  JOHNSTOWN. 

By  W.  Horace  Rose,  Esq. 

Johnstown  up  to  the  time  of  the  flood         ....       419 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Rev.  David  J.  Beale,  D.D.,  ......     Frontispiece. 

Map  OF  THE  Valley  OF  THE  CoNEMAUGH,         .         .         .         .         .  21 

Dr.  Beale  and  his  Assistants  on  their  Field  of  Labor,          .  40 

Site  of  the  Hulbert  House  on  Main  Street,       ....  57 

The  Fenn  Children — all  Lost  in  the  Flood,  ....  76 

Freddie  Poland,     ..........  93 

Remains  of  the  Broken  Dam  at  South  Fork,  .         ,         .         .  112 
The  Broken  Dam,  viewed  from  the  Lake  Basin,  .         .         .         .129 

House  of  John  Shultz,  near  the  Stone  Bridge,        .         .         .  139 

View  from  Prospect  Hill,  looking  South,    .         .         .         .         .  150 

Wreck  of  the  B.  and  O.  Railroad  Station,      .         .         .         .  159 

Devastated  District,  viewed  from  Green  Hill,          .         .         .  169 

Ruins  of  the  Sisters'  House,      .......  179 

R.  C.  Church  of  St.  John — burned  during  the  Flood,         .         .190 

Wrecked  Engines  below  the  Round  House,  East  Conemaugh,  199 

Interior  of  R.  C.  Church  of  St.  Mary,  Cambria  City,          .         .  209 

Store  of  Mr.  Clark,  on  Main  Street — Proprietor  Lost,         .  219 

Outside  View  of  a  Temporary  Morgue,        .....  230 

Scene  in  the  Park — Opera  House  in  the  Rear,        .         .         .  239 

Scene  at  Morgue  "A" — about  to  Coffin  a  Body,          .         .         .  249 

(19) 


20 


ILL  USTRA  TIONS. 


Clearing  away  Debris  on  the  B.  and  O.  Railroad,  . 

Residence  of  Dr.  Lowman,  near  the  Presbyterian  Church, 

Dr.  Beale's  two  Boys  and  their  Rescued  Dog, 

Scene  near  the  Site  of  the  Hulbert  House, 

Mr.  James  B.  Scott,    ........ 

Debris  above  the  Stone  Bridge,  . 

Dynamite  Blasting  above  the  Stone  Bridge,    . 

Site  of  Woodvale,  one  Month  after  the  Flood, 

Track  of  the  Flood  from  the  Pennsylvania  R.  R.  Track, 

Commissary  Headquarters  at  the  P.  R.  R.  Depot, 

New  Business  Block  on  the  Park,  Johnstown, 

Red  Cross  Society's  Headquarters, 


259 
270 
279 
289 
299 
310 

327 
346 

363 
382 

391 
401 


I. 

THE  OVERWHELMING  FLOOD. 

'  When  thou  passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be  with  thee." — Isaiah  43  :  2. 


I . THE    AUTHOR  S    EXPERIENCE. 

The  day  preceding  the  flood  was  "  Decoration  Day."  Al- 
though the  sky  was  overcast  and  there  was  a  sHght  rainfall  occa- 
sionally, this  Thursday,  upon  the  whole,  was  rather  pleasant.  The 
citizens  of  Johnstown  were  out  in  their  strength,  and  a  large 
number  of  strangers  were  present  from  Altoona,  Hollidaysburg, 
Wilmore,  Ebensburg,  Somerset,  Latrobe  and  other  neighboring 
towns.  The  great  concourse  of  people  on  the  sidewalks,  the  long 
procession  of  soldiers  and  of  various  secret  orders,  the  numerous 
bands  of  music,  the  display  of  flags  and  bunting  along  the  prin- 
cipal streets,  the  strewing  of  flowers  on  the  graves  of  deceased 
patriots,  and  Colonel  W.  D.  Moore's  eloquent  oration  in  the  Opera 
House,  all  contributed  to  make  this  a  red-letter  day  for  Johns- 
town. 

After  nightfall  the  clouds  grew  heavier,  hanging  nearer  the 
earth,  and  at  9  o'clock  a  gentle  drizzling  rain  set  in,  which,  after  1 1 
o'clock,  was  followed  by  an  unprecedented  outpour.  In  fact,  there 
seemed  to  be  a  series  of  waterspouts  during  much  of  the  night. 
Before  8  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  banks  of  both  the  Conemaugh 
and  the  Stony  Creek  were  full,  and  the  lower  parts  of  the  city 
were  slightly  covered  with  water.  By  10  o'clock  the  flood  had 
reached  halfway  up  the  First  and  Second  Wards,  and  by  1 1  o'clock 


24 


THE  RISING   WATERS. 


it  had  attained  a  depth  of  five  feet  at  the  corner  of  Main  and 
Market  Streets  and  at  the  Cambria  Iron  Company's  store. 

It  was  now  frequently  remarked  that  our  periodic  flood  was 
upon  us,  and  that  it  was  already  at  a  greater  altitude  than  the 
highest  point  attained  by  the  flood  of  June  7th,  1887.  ^^^  ^^ 
then,  and  on  other  occasions,  no  lives  had  been  lost  by  the  freshet, 
so  now  no  one  apprehended  a  different  result.  In  the  lower  dis- 
tricts of  the  city,  carpets  were  taken  up,  as  was  usual  at  such  sea- 
sons of  high  water,  and  in  some  cases  pianos  and  organs  were 
lifted  on  chairs,  that  they  might  go  unharmed.  Gradually  the 
streams  rose  higher,  until  in  the  very  centre  of  the  town  the  waters 
of  the  Stony  Creek  mingled  with  the  waters  of  the  Conemaugh. 
An  aged  citizen  standing  on  the  corner  of  Main  and  Market 
Streets  remarked  to  me  that  he  had  seen  the  Conemaugh  as  high 
before,  and  that  he  had  witnessed  as  much  water  in  the  Stony 
Creek,  but  that  he  had  never  before  noticed  both  streams  so  high  at 
one  and  the  same  time.  Not  one  word,  however,  was  uttered  by 
him  or  by  any  one  else  concerning  the  Conemaugh  Lake  ;  and  I 
am  persuaded  that  few,  if  any,  imagined  there  would  be  dis- 
aster arising  from  that  source.  I  remarked  that  I  thought  our 
officers  should  have  called  out  men  to  make  rafts  to  remove 
people  from  the  lower  parts  of  the  town,  not  for  a  moment  sup- 
posing that  we  in  the  central  parts  should  need  them  ourselves 
within  a  few  hours. 

Soon  we  and  all  others  on  the  pavements  sought  refuge  in 
our  houses,  for  soon  the  water  filled  all  the  streets,  so  that  by  2 
o'clock  there  were  from  two  to  ten  feet  of  water  all  over  Johns- 
town proper.  Although  the  water  continued  to  rise,  we  had  no 
news  of  any  apprehended  danger  of  the  bursting  of  the  dam.  Nor 
do  I  suppose  that  many  of  our  citizens  believed  that  in  the  event 
of  the  breaking  of  the  reservoir  it  would  greatly  increase  the  vol- 
ume of  the  water  at  our  distance  from  its  location.     When  one  of 


RUSH  OF  THE  TORRENT.  25 

our  leading  citizens  was  asked  at  this  time  how  much  higher  he 
thought  the  flood  would  reach,  if  the  Conemaugh  Lake  or  reser- 
voir would  give  way,  his  reply  was,  "  About  two  feet." 

From  2  o'clock  until  4  o'clock  the  water  seemed  to  rise 
slowly;  in  fact,  it  was  slightly  falling,  when,  at  10  minutes  after  4, 
the  great  avalanche  rushed  upon  us.  I  had  been  in  my  study,  on 
the  first  floor,  preparing  for  the  Sabbath  services,  when,  contrary 
to  my  own  judgment  of  the  necessity  of  the  case,  I  was  induced  to 
go  into  my  parlor  to  assist  in  taking  up  the  carpet.  In  a  moment 
after  I  heard  a  sound  as  of  an  approaching  railroad  train,  when  all 
at  once  the  mighty  torrent  struck  our  residence.  I  cried  "  Up- 
stairs!  up-stairs!"  and  when  I  saw  all  my  family  and  Mr.  Lloyd 
and  his  sister — neighbors  who  were  present  at  the  time — safely  in 
advance  of  me,  I  followed,  with  the  family  Bible  in  my  hand,  pushed 
upward  by  the  incoming  water.  Mrs.  Beale,  with  great  presence 
of  mind,  had  turned  off  the  natural  gas,  which  we  employed  for 
heating  purposes,  and  one  of  my  daughters  had  seized  the  canary 
cage  and  carried  it  above  stairs.  The  water  was  on  the  second 
story  sooner  than  I  was,  and  carried  the  hat-rack  with  such 
force  as  to  strike  me  on  the  back,  just  as  I  reached  the  head  of 
the  stairs,  up  to  my  waist  in  water.  In  a  moment  the  family  had 
rushed  on  to  the  attic,  when  a  man  was  washed  through  a  window 
beside  me  as  if  shot  out  of  a  catapult.  I  said,  in  one  breath, 
"Who  are  you?  Where  are  you  from?"  He  did  not  give  his 
name  (although  I  recognized  him  as  one  whom  I  had  frequently 
seen  near  the  woolen  mill),  but  struggling  for  breath,  he  merely 
replied,  "Woodvale."  He  had  been  carried  on  a  roof  a  mile  and 
a  quarter,  and  was  dashed  through  the  window  into  my  second 
story  as  the  roof  on  which  he  had  been  borne,  with  a  great  shock, 
struck  the  parsonage. 

Soon  we  were  all  together  on  the  third  floor,  and  I  had  found 
the  Forty-sixth  Psalm,  a  part  of  which  I  read  to  our  company,  con- 


2  6  THE  TOWN  DEMOLISHED. 

sisting  of  ten  persons.  Several  of  them  wished  to  see  and  read 
the  passage  for  themselves,  which  they  did,  as  the  Bible  was  passed 
around.  The  entire  company  engaged  in  ejaculatory  prayer,  and  I, 
also,  led  them  in  prayer,  renewedly  dedicating  ourselves  to  God 
and  our  Saviour,  expecting  in  a  moment  "  to  be  present  with  the 
Lord." 

One  of  my  little  sons,  a  lad  of  twelve  summers,  shouted  out: 
"Surely,  papa,  God  will  take  care  of  us,  for  we  are  His  children," 
and  then  he  prayed  aloud  in  a  most  touching  manner,  closing  in 
the  language  of  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  "  Yea,  though  I  walk 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil :  for 
thou  art  with  me ;  thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me.  Amen." 

During  all  this  time,  and  for  several  minutes  after,  scores,  aye, 
hundreds  of  houses  and  parts  of  houses,  wrecked  and  ruined 
structures,  were  dashing,  rocking,  grinding,  tipping  and  tumbling 
past  our  shattered,  broken  and  twisted  parsonage  on  the  right  of 
us,  and  on  the  left  of  us ;  for,  superadded  to  the  water  already  on 
our  streets,  from  1 6  to  40  feet  more,  dependent  on  the  width  of 
the  valley,  rushed  down  upon  us,  bearing  on  its  bosom  houses, 
barns,  freight  cars,  city  passenger  cars,  locomotives,  tenders,  iron 
bridges,  the  Gautier  plant,  trees,  lumber,  animals  and  human 
beings,  dead  and  alive,  and  all  kinds  of  wreckage,  pitching,  toss- 
ing, banging  and  smashing  to  pieces  in  one  indiscriminate  mass. 
We  were  in  the  midst  of  an  angr}^  raging  sea. 

I  recognized  J.  Q.  A.  Benshoff,  our  leading  bookseller ;  Mrs. 
John  Fulton  and  daughter,  Charles  Barnes,  Mrs.  Young,  of  Park 
Place,  and  scores  of  others  as  they  were  dashed  past  our  residence. 
I  saw  two  little  children  alone,  and  almost  nude,  clinging  to  the 
comb  of  one  roof  as  it  floated  by,  and  three  or  four  young  ladies, 
on  another  roof,  clinging  to  each  other  in  agonized  embrace 
amidst  the  swirl  and  swash  of  the  sweeping  waves.  I  observed 
that  for  several  squares  west  and  north  and  south  of  us  nearly  every 


ESCAPE  FROM  THE  PARSONAGE. 


27 


house  had  been  torn  from  its  foundations,  and  we  all  were  in  mo- 
mentary expectation  of  a  similar  disaster.  But  it  now  appeared 
that  the  waters  flowed  less  rapidly  and  in  a  different  direction,  for 
the  immense  stone  bridge  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  had  be- 
come the  breast  of  a  turbulent  sea,  which  submerged  our  fair  city, 
and  hurled  the  waters  back  again. 

The  houses  which  first  passed  our  residence  were  now  com- 
pletely crushed  together,  with  trucks  of  cars,  tons  of  steel  and  piles 
of  lumber  at  the  railroad  bridge  ;  but  those  which  came  last  were 
returned  near  my  locality  by  the  back  water.  At  this  moment, 
seeing  Captain  A.  N.  Hart,  his  wife,  sister  and  two  children  strug- 
gling among  wreckage  which  had  drifted  near  the  parsonage,  I 
descended  into  the  water  in  the  second  story  and  succeeded  in  get- 
ting them  into  my  house  through  a  window.  Now  our  company 
numbered  fifteen  in  the  parsonage  garret. 

Soon  the  wreckage  to  the  west  of  us  began  to  move  off,  an(f, 
our  house,  which  is  a  large,  new  frame  building,  began  to  shake 
and  rock  and  sag  in  the  middle.  Captain  Hart  and  Mr,  Lloyd  in- 
sisted that  we  were  in  immediate  peril,  as,  in  their  judgment ^  the 
house  was  giving  way.  Finally,  after  some  hurried  conference 
and  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  get  upon  our  own  roof,  we  gained 
egress  from  the  highest  window  upon  a  floating  roof  below.  This 
was  indeed  a  hazardous  alternative.  Seizing  a  rope  at  hand,  I  let 
Captain  Hart  out  first.  He  assured  me  that  the  roof  was  worthy; 
and  then,  in  quick  succession,  all  the  occupants  of  the  attic  were 
passed  out  of  the  window,  when  I  followed  them.  Just  as  I  was 
about  to  pass  David  and  Wilson,  our  youngest  boys,  out  of  the 
window,  they  expressed  the  desire  that  their  dog,  which  stood  by, 
mutely  pleading  for  his  life,  should  be  saved,  and  accordingly 
''  Guess  "  was  let  down  upon  the  roof  No  sooner  had  he  reached 
it  than,  true  to  doggish  nature,  he  and  a  neighbor's  cur  engaged 
in  an  earnest  and  free  fight  for  the  supremacy. 


28  ALMA  HALL  REACHED. 

We  had  hoped  at  first  to  have  reached  the  church,  but  we  soon 
ascertained  that  an  intervening  space  of  fifty  feet  or  more  was  en- 
tirely uncovered  with  wreckage,  over  which  we  had  hoped  to  have 
walked ;  and  so  we  abandoned  that  attempt,  and  began  a  perilous 
journey  to  Alma  Hall,  the  largest,  strongest  building  in  the  city, 
of  four  very  high  stories,  half  a  square  distant,  walking  and  jump- 
ing from  one  moving  house  or  roof,  or  box-car  to  another ;  and 
sometimes  we  were  on  opposite  sides  of  roofs,  and  therefore 
out  of  sight  of  each  other :  then,  again,  we  were  compelled  to  bridge 
over  deep  watery  spaces  with  loose  boards  or  planks.  One  of  the 
young  ladies,  when  walking  on  a  piece  of  scantling,  fell  into  the 
watery  chasm,  so  that  we  could  see  nothing  but  her  hair  floating 
on  the  surface.  She  was  rescued  by  being  pulled  upon  some 
floating  timbers,  and  just  before  dark  we  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  Hall.  We  found  that  very  many  from  different  parts  of  the 
city  had  sought  refuge  there  before  our  arrival.  Some  of  our 
number  now  went  out  on  the  wreckage,  taking  the  rope  brought 
from  the  parsonage,  and  succeeded  in  extricating  a  number  who 
were  either  fastened  in  amongst  the  timbers,  or  were  too  much 
exhausted  to  help  themselves. 

A  meeting  of  the  men  in  the  Hall  was  held  on  the  second 
staircase,  and  James  M.  Walters,  Esq.,  was  elected  Director  of 
the  building,  and  Dr.  W.  E.  Matthews,  Captain  A.  N.  Hart  and 
myself,  respectively,  were  appointed  controllers  of  the  three  stories 
now  peopled  with  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  rescued  ones.  On 
motion,  being  requested,  I  offered,  in  each  room,  prayer.  We  also 
gave  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  His  gracious  deliverance  of  those 
present,  and  sought  sustaining  grace  for  the  bereaved  ones.  Mr. 
Walters,  who  accompanied  me,  suggested  that  all  should  rever- 
ently bow  their  heads  during  the  prayer,  which  request  was  com- 
plied with.  That  was,  indeed,  a  solemn  and  impressive  occasion.  In 
this  service,  Jews  and  Gentiles,  Catholics  and  Protestants,  Africans 
and  Chinamen  united. 


A  NIGHT  OF  HORRORS.  29 

Orders  were  given  that  there  should  be  no  Hghts  in  the  Hall 
during  the  night,  lest  the  escaping  natural  gas  explode ;  and  all 
persons  having  spirituous  liquors  were  required  to  give  them  to 
the  Directors  of  each  hall  of  the  building.  These  orders  were 
cheerfully  obeyed,  and  those  having  pocket  flasks  willingly  sur- 
rendered them. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  one  in  that  entire  building  on  that  awful 
night,  the  last  of  May,  1889,  refused  to  pray  to  his  Maker.  One 
can  scarcely  conceive  of  an  assembly  convened  under  circumstances 
more  affecting  than  those  which  massed  us  together  on  the  floors 
of  Alma  Hall.  The  suppressed  moans  of  the  bruised,  the  agony 
and  dread  suspense  of  separated  friends  and  relatives ;  the  cries 
of  little  children  for  food  and  water,  which  could  not  be  supplied  ; 
the  bowlings  of  terror-stricken  brutes  ;  the  darkness  and  confusion 
throughout  the  building ;  the  sickening  and  stifling  odors ;  the 
dying  scenes  on  the  wreckage  about  us,  and  in  the  conflagration 
at  the  railroad  bridge ;  and  the  expressed  opinions  of  contractors 
present,  that  the  great  building  would  yield  to  the  fearful  strain, 
combined  to  make  that  night  one  of  indescribable  horror. 

At  break  of  day,  the  waters  had  somewhat  subsided,  having 
forced  a  way  through  the  wreckage  under  the  arches  of  the  great 
bridge,  and  formed  a  partial  outlet  by  washing  away  the  roadbed 
between  the  station  and  the  stone  railroad  bridge ;  and  yet  the 
wreckage  on  many  of  the  streets  was  almost  as  high  as  the  few 
remaining  buildings. 

Except  those  who  had  broken  bones,  or  were  otherwise  dis- 
abled, nearly  all  sought  an  early  opportunity  to  leave  Alma  Hall. 
We  departed  from  the  building  through  a  window  on  Main  Street, 
the  whole  length  of  which  to  Adam — nearly  five  blocks  away — ^.was 
filled  with  rubbish,  such  as  cars,  houses,  bridges,  trees  and  furniture, 
together  with  dead  bodies,  the  mass  piled  up  fifteen  or  twenty  feet, 
over  which  we  walked  and  crawled  the  entire  distance.      We  of 


30  IMMEDIATELY  AFTER    THE   FLOOD. 

Alma  Hall,  with  a  large  company  of  others,  rescued  elseAvhere, 
made  our  way  over  this  rubbish  with  great  difficulty,  until  we 
reached  the  hill  at  the  foot  of  Frankstown  Road,  beyond  the  line 
reached  by  the  waters  of  the  flood. 

There  were  here  gathered  at  least  three  thousand  persons 
of  all  ages,  and  of  every  condition,  many  of  them  stripped  of 
nearly  all  their  clothing,  and  all  chilled,  haggard  and  quite  dis- 
tracted with  the  dreadful  experience  of  the  night.  Our  first 
thoucvht  was  to  find  some  refuse  for  our  wives  and  children  and 
those  who  were  too  feeble  to  care  for  themselves.  With  my 
family  I  climbed  Singer  hill  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Cover,  and,  leaving 
them  there,  hastened  back  to  the  multitude,  with  the  purpose  of 
aidinof  others  and  effectinor  somethino-  like  order  out  of  the  con- 
fusion. 

It  is  wholly  impossible  to  give  any  conception  of  the  scene 
presented  at  that  spot.  Every  one  of  the  vast  crowd  was  either 
injured  in  some  form,  or  had  been  bereft  of  their  kin  and  loved 
ones.  Their  agony  was  so  intense  as  to  be  oppressive,  and  held 
expression  as  with  the  grasp  of  a  vise,  so  that  no  one  was  seen  to 
shed  a  tear.  As  fast  as  possible,  the  women  and  children  were 
distributed  in  the  homes  and  shelters  on  the  hills,  which  were  kindly 
offered  by  the  occupants.  These  being  few,  and  for  the  most  part 
small,  were  taxed  to  the  utmost.  In  one,  thirteen  families  were 
located ;  on  a  floor  in  another,  nineteen  persons  had  to  sleep,  with- 
out chang-e  of  clothingr. 

For  ten  days,  such  was  our  need,  and  I  was  so  occupied  with  the 
dead  and  livinof,  that  I  wore  without  chanofe  the  clothes  with  which 
I  came  out  of  the  flood,  and  went  without  food  for  twenty-four  o: 
thirty  hours,  having  turned  over  that  which  was  sent  to  me  to  chil- 
dren and  ladies  who,  I  knew,  could  not  endure  the  fast  as  well  as  I. 
Perhaps  the  constant  labor  and  anxiety  which  were  upon  me 
enabled  me  the  better  to  endure  it. 


STATE  AID  INVOKED.  3 1 

As  from  this  point  we  gazed  back  upon  our  city,  or  where  our 
city  was,  our  hearts  sank  within  us.  To  the  right  stood  the  black- 
ened walls  of  St.  John's  Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  had  burned 
during  the  horrid  night,  its  rafters  still  smoking.  Here  and  there 
above  or  beyond  the  massed  piles  of  bricks  in  the  city  there  were 
a  few  houses  standing,  some  of  them  out  of  plumb.  The  spires  of 
churches  once  our  pride  were  gone ;  the  most  of  our  homes 
destroyed,  and  their  fragments  scattered  over  the  wide  vale 
below.  It  were  vain  to  undertake  to  tell  the  world  how  or  what 
we  felt,  when,  shoeless,  hatless,  and  many  of  us  almost  naked, 
some  bruised  and  broken,  we  stood  there  and  looked  upon  that 
scene  of  death  and  desolation.  This  was  not  the  time  for  yielding 
to  emotion ;  and  with  the  recollection  of  the  fact  that  Paris  was 
overrun  with  thieves  the  day  of  its  capitulation  to  the  German  army, 
I  ran  to  a  little  boy  who  was  passing  on  horseback,  and,  giving  him 
some  money  which  I  had  in  my  pocket,  ordered  him  to  telegraph 
immediately  to  Governor  Beaver,  to  send  the  military  to  us  at 
once.    The  boy  did  as  bidden,  aiid  the  practical  response  soon  came. 

Everything  about  us  was  in  inextricable  confusion,  showing  the 
effects  of  the  terrific  convulsion  through  which  nature  and  humanity 
had  passed.  Here  were  uprooted  trees,  houses  upturned  or  de- 
molished, furniture  of  every  description — hardware,  woodenware, 
parlor  ornaments  and  kitchen  utensils,  mattresses,  bodies  of  horses, 
cattle  and  swine,  corpses  of  men,  women  and  children,  railroad 
cars  and  locomotives — overturned  or  on  end,  and  pressing  down 
upon  the  half-buried  bodies  of  the  drowned. 

As  I  was  climbing  over  the  debris  a  young  man,  whom  I  did  not 
know,  recognizing  me,  handed  me  a  handsome  gold-headed  cane, 
saying,  "  Dr.  Beale,  here  is  a  valuable  cane  which  I  picked  up  amid 
the  wreckage."  After  several  weeks  I  found  the  owner,  Mr.  C. 
W.  Lewis,  to  whom  I  returned  it.  Another  person,  whom  also  I 
did  not  know,  handed  me  a  watch  and  several  gold  chains.     These 


3  2  FORMER  FLOODS  AT  JOHNS  TO  WN. 

1  committed  to  my  wife's  care,  after  we  had  reached  our  place  of 
refuo^e.  Mr.  Cover's.  Two  months  afterward  the  owner  was 
found,  a  Mrs.  Randolph,  to  whom  they  were  delivered.  These 
acts  are  but  samples  of  many  occurring  in  those  days  of  misery. 

2. EXPERIENCE    OF    W.    HORACE    ROSE,    ESQ.,    ATTORNEY    AT    LAW.* 

"Truth  is  stranger  than  fiction." 

I  AWOKE  on  the  morning  of  May  31st,  1889,  to  find  the  waters 
of  the  Stony  Creek  and  Little  Conemaugh,  within  seventeen  hun- 
dred feet  of  whose  confluence  I  reside,  so  swollen  that  the  gutter 
in  front  of  my  dwelling  was  full.  This  was  higher  than  the  water 
had  ever  attained,  except  in  June,  1887,  when  my  cellar  was 
flooded.  I  had  resided  in  Johnstown  all  my  life,  had  seen  the 
floods  of  1847,  1862,  1867;  was  at  home  a  few  hours  after  the 
sweep  of  1887,  and  although  I  now  saw  that  the  water  had  attained 
a  higher  level  (except  the  flood  line  of  June,  1887)  than  I  ever 
witnessed,  I  took  no  special  alarm.  The  flood  of  1887  was  excep- 
tional, and  I  did  not  believe  there  would  be  any  greater  damage 
done,  or  that  the  waters  could  possibly  attain  a  much  greater  ele- 
vation than  did  the  flood  of  that  year. 

In  all  the  great  floods  that  had  swept  the  valley,  the  periods 
when  the  highest  flood  had  occurred  in  the  Stony  Creek  and  the 
Little  Conemaugh  were  not  simultaneous,  and  the  one  or  the  other 
of  the  streams  had  discharored  the  volume  of  its  flood  before  its 
confluent  had  reached  its  climax.  The  Stony  Creek  drains  a 
much  larger  area  of  territory,  and  its  rise  is  much  slower  than  the 
precipitous  Little  Conemaugh.  The  Stony  Creek  flows  from  the 
South,  while  the  Conemaugh  drops  from  the  East  down  the  moun- 
tain side  of  the  Allegheny.  I  had  expected  the  same  state  or  con- 
dition that  had  marked  all  other  floods  I  had  witnessed. 

*  Dictated  by  himself. 


THE  FATAL  MO R XING.  33 

After  breakfast  I  found  the  waters  rapidly  rising  and  discov- 
ered that  both  streams  were  rising  simultaneously.  I  aided  my 
boys  in  hitching  my  team  of  horses  in  an  open  wagon,  prudently 
refusing  to  use  my  best  harness  or  attach  the  horses  to  my  fine 
carriage,  because  I  did  not  desire  to  have  them  wet  or  injured 
by  the  heavily  falling  rain.  By  the  time  we  were  harnessed  up, 
the  water  was  on  my  stable  floor,  and  I  caused  my  cow  to  be  driven 
to  the  hillside,  expecting  to  have  her  returned  in  an  hour  or  two, 
when  the  flood  subsided. 

I  personally  drove  the  wagon  along  the  Main  Street,  intend- 
ing to  remove  any  from  their  houses  on  the  lower  part  of  Main 
Street  who  desired  to  go,  but  I  found  that  by  9  o'clock  the  water 
was  so  deep  in  the  lower  part  of  the  town  that  it  was  unsafe  for 
me  to  return  below  my  own  residence.  I  then  drove  toward  the 
upper  end  of  the  town,  and  found  the  water  flowing  across  the 
town  on  Main  Street  at  its  intersection  with  Clinton  and  Bedford 
Streets.  A  man  led  his  cow  in  the  direction  of  the  hill  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  town,  where  she  stopped  and  drank  water  on  Main 
Street  at  its  intersection  with  Clinton  and  Bedford. 

I  stood  on  the  corner  of  Main  and  Clinton  Streets  conversing 
with  Charles  Zimmerman  and  D.  W.  Harshberger  ;  I  remarked  to 
Mr.  Zimmerman:  "Charley,  you  and  I  have  scored  fifty  years,  and 
this  is  the  first  time  we  ever  saw  a  cow  drink  Stony  Creek  River 
water  on  Main  Street."  He  remarked:  "That's  so,  but  the  water 
two  years  ago  was  higher.'  This  was  between  9  and  10  o'clock 
in  the  forenoon.  The  rain  began  to  fall  heavily,  and  I  went  and 
purchased  rubber  coats  for  my  two  youngest  sons,  who  were  in 
the  wagon,  and  with  them  I  went  to  my  office,  located  on  Franklin 
Street,  within  one  hundred  feet  of  the  Stony  Creek  River. 

The  flood  of  1887  had  reached  the  altitude  of  about  one  foot 
in  my  office.  I  found  on  arriving  at  the  office  that  the  Stony  Creek 
was  still  rapidly  rising.     I  immediately  set  about  placing  my  papers 


34  NARROWNESS  OF  THE  CREEK-BED. 

above  the  flood  line  of  1887,  and  then  started  for  my  dwelling. 
On  my  way  home,  I  met  my  neighbor,  John  Dibert ;  we  discussed 
the  situation  and  mutually  agreed  that  the  filling  up  of  the  mar- 
gins of  the  streams  was  the  cause  of  the  town  being  overflowed 
for  the  want  of  sufficient  outlet  for  the  water;  and  that  if  the  two 
streams  continued  to  rise  simultaneously,  the  Cambria  Iron  Com- 
pany having  reduced  the  width  of  the  channel  below  the  conflu- 
ence of  the  Little  Conemaugh  and  Stony  Creek  to  such  an  extent 
that  there  was  insufficient  room  for  the  escape  of  the  water,  it 
would  be  backed  up  and  our  cellars  overflowed,  which  was  the  full 
extent  of  the  damage  we  anticipated. 

The  width  of  the  Stony  Creek  had  been  fixed  by  ordinances 
of  the  borough  and  an  agreement  with  the  Cambria  Iron  Com- 
pany at  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet;  its  actual  width  before 
the  adoption  of  this  ordinance,  as  was  marked  by  the  spans  of  the 
bridge  at  the  end  of  Franklin  Street,  was  two  hundred  and  forty 
feet.  The  width  of  the  Little  Conemaugh,  as  fixed  by  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  boroughs  of  Johnstown  and  Millville.and  an  agreement 
between  the  two  boroughs  and  the  Cambria  Iron  Company,  was 
one  hundred  and  ten  feet,  making  a  total  water-way  of  the  two 
streams,  as  fixed  by  the  ordinance,  of  two  hundred  and  eighty-five 
feet;  whereas  the  Conemaugh  proper  being  the  stream  below 
the  confluence  of  the  Stony  Creek  and  Little  Conemaugh  was  re- 
duced by  the  Cambria  Iron  Company,  filling  on  either  side,  so  that 
the  water  was  less  than  two  hundred  feet  in  width. 

This  was  the  point  discussed  by  Mr.  Dibert  and  myself,  and 
he  proposed  that  after  the  flood  was  over,  a  meeting  of  the  citizens 
should  be  called  to  take  steps  toward  compelling  the  Cambria  Iron 
Company  to  remove  its  deposits  from  the  bed  of  the  river  and  re- 
store the  stream  to  its  original  width  and  give  an  outlet  for  the 
waters,  so  that  the  property-holders  in  the  lower  end  of  Johnstown 
should  not,  every  spring  and  fall,  be  inconvenienced  by  the  flooding 


FLOODED,  BUT  IN  PEACE.  35 

of  their  cellars  by  the  back  waters.  We  separated,  and  I  never 
saw  him  again,  I  made  my  way  to  my  home,  arriving  there  about 
1 1  o'clock.  I  could  not  reach  the  house  by  the  front  door,  the 
water  then  being  nearly  four  feet  deep,  but  improvised  a  raft 
in  an  adjoining  lot  and  floated  into  my  back  porch.  Finding  the 
water  was  still  rapidly  rising,  we  immediately  commenced  remov- 
ing the  furniture  and  carpets  from  the  lower  story,  being  overtaken 
in  the  kitchen  before  we  had  the  carpet  raised  there.  Slowly  but 
surely,  the  water  continued  to  rise,  and  I  marked  with  sadness 
that  it  reached  above  the  wash-board,  and  with  its  muddy  freight 
stained  the  beautiful  paper  I  had  recently  put  upon  the  walls  of  my 
dwelling.  My  family  were  now  all  in  the  house  except  Forest,  the 
next  to  my  youngest  son,  who,  after  taking  the  team  to  the  hillside 
in  the  Sixth  Ward,  had  only  been  able  to  make  his  way  back  as  far 
as  the  residence  of  my  neighbor,  Mr.  Fisher,  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  street  and  two  doors  above  me,  from  whence  he  made  known 
to  us  his  presence  and  safety.  My  eldest  son,  Horace,  who  is 
married  and  resides  on  the  hillside,  in  the  Sixth  Ward,  had  early  in 
the  day  made  his  way  to  my  house  to  assist  us  in  removing  any 
articles  likely  to  be  reached  by  the  rise  of  water,  which  he  antici- 
pated would  not  be  higher  than  that  of  1887.  At  any  time  after 
1 1  o'clock  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to  have  left  the 
house. 

So  unsuspecting  of  danger  was  I  that,  from  the  time  we  re- 
moved the  furniture  to  the  second  floor,  until  within  fifteen  minutes 
of  the  final  catastrophe,  I  amused  myself  by  shooting  rats  from  an 
upper  window,  or  joking  with  my  neighbors,  Squire  Fisher  and 
Mr.  Hamilton,  across  the  street.  I  shot  a  rat  as  it  struggled  along 
the  wall  of  a  stable  In  an  adjoining  lot ;  a  moment  after  I  cast  my 
eye  to  the  right  and  noticed  that  the  water  was  rapidly  rushing 
from  the  Little  Conemaugh  toward  Main  Street,  and  that  there  were 
four  courses  of  brick  between  the  water  and  the  bottom  of  the 


36  THE  AWFUL  CRASH. 

window-sill  of  my  neighbor,  Mr.  Dibert's,  house.  I  drew  my  watch 
from  my  pocket  and,  noting  the  time,  said  to  my  youngest  son,  a 
lad  of  14  years,  who  stood  by  my  side  at  the  attic  window: 
"Percy,  it  is  just  a  quarter  to  4 ;  I  have  shot  a  rat,  and  there  are 
just  four  courses  of  brick  between  the  water  and  Dibert's  window- 
sill  ;  after  a  while  we  will  look  and  see  whether  the  water  is  rising 
or  not,"  I  then  went  down  to  the  second  floor,  where  the  women 
folks  had  broken  up  a  box,  started  a  fire  in  the  grate  and  made 
some  coffee.  I  walked  to  a  window,  raised  it,  and  called  to  Bessie 
Fronheiser,  a  neighbor's  child,  who  stood  at  an  opposite  window, 
and  asking  her  to  come  over,  she  laughingly  said :  "  I  can't."  I  then 
told  her  to  come  to  a  window  in  the  front  part  of  the  house  and  I 
would  give  her  some  candy ;  a  minute  after,  she  and  her  mother 
appeared  at  a  window  directly  opposite  one  in  our  house,  where 
the  distance  between  the  houses  was  about  five  or  six  feet.  I  took 
a  broom;  some  member  of  my  family  poured  a  lot  of  mixed  candy 
on  it,  and  I  passed  the  same  across  the  open  space  to  Bessie  and 
her  mother ;  as  she  took  the  candy  from  the  broom,  Mrs.  Rose 
said  to  Mrs.  Fronheiser,  "  You  are  not  looking  well — wait  till  we 
hand  you  some  coffee  ;  we  have  made  some  on  the  grate."  She 
then  handed  me  a  tin-cup  of  coffee,  which  was  placed  on  the  broom 
and  passed  over  to  Mrs  Fronheiser,  who  took  it  and  raised  it  to  her 
lips.  She  never  tasted  it.  There  came  a  crash ;  she  lowered  the 
cup  and  exclaimed :  "  My  God  !  what  is  that  ?  "  My  daughter 
said :  "  Our  fence  is  breaking  down  !  "  I  rushed  to  the  back  part 
of  the  house,  saw  the  side  of  my  carriage  house  fall  out  into  the  lot, 
and  the  carriage  being  driven  through  the  opening.  I  heard  loud 
screams,  the  sound  of  breaking  timbers,  the  alarm  of  a  bell,  and 
the  loud  scream  of  a  steam  whistle.  I  said :  "  Somethingr  awful 
has  happened !  "  and  rushed  to  the  third  floor  of  the  building,  fol- 
lowed by  all  who  were  in  the  house.  I  ran  directly  to  the  north- 
east window,  which  overlooked  the  valley  of  the  Little  Conemaugh, 


"  THIS  MEANS  DEA  TH."  3  7 

when  a  sight  was  presented  which  absolutely  appalled  me,  and  I 
at  once  made  up  my  mind  that  the  days  of  myself  and  family  were 
numbered.  My  view  extended  for  nearly  a  mile  up  the  valley.  I 
saw  stretching  from  hill  to  hill  a  great  mass  of  timber,  trees,  roofs 
and  debris  of  every  sort,  rapidly  advancing  toward  me,  wrecking 
and  carrying  everything  before  it.  It  was  then  about  the  midst 
of  what  was  known  as  the  Gautier  Works,  a  department  of  the 
Cambria  Iron  Works,  which  covered  perhaps  ten  or  twelve  acres  of 
ground.  A  dense  cloud  hung  over  the  line  of  the  rolling  debris, 
which  I  then  supposed  was  the  steam  and  soot  which  had  arisen 
from  the  hundreds  of  fires  in  the  Gautier  Works  as  the  waves 
rolled  over  them.  I  stood  and  looked  as  the  resistless  tide  moved 
on  and  saw  brick  buildings  crushed  and  in  an  instant  pass  out  of 
sight,  while  frame  tenements  were  quickly  crushed  to  atoms. 

Members  of  my  family  asked  me  if  there  was  no  escape.  I 
answered,  "  No ;  this  means  death  to  us  all."  My  wife  with 
blanched  face  said,  "  Won't  our  big  strong  house  stand  ?"  I  re- 
plied deliberately :  "  No,  Maggie,  no  building  can  stand  this  awful 
jam,  and  we  are  all  lost." 

The  press  of  the  heaving,  surging  mass  rolled  steadily  on, 
and  in  less  than  three  minutes,  as  nearly  as  I  can  estimate  time 
from  the  moment  I  saw  the  front  of  the  angry  torrent,  it  was  upon 
us.  The  great  municipal  building  above  me  fell  with  a  crash. 
The  stately  dwelling  of  my  neighbor,  John  Dibert,  was  broken  to 
atoms.  I  walked  rapidly  to  the  southeast  window  and  saw  the  front 
of  the  brick  dwelling  above  and  adjoining  mine,  crushed  to  rubbish. 
Several  persons  were  floating  directly  down  Main  Street,  in  front 
of  me  ;  a  large  frame  building,  directly  opposite  me,  careened,  at 
the  attic  windows  of  which  I  saw  a  number  of  ladies,  one  of  whom 
held  an  infant  in  her  arms  ;  there  was  a  crash,  a  sensation  of  fall- 
ing, a  consciousness  that  I  was  in  the  water,  and  all  was  dark.  A 
moment  later,  I  felt  the  press  of  a  heavy  shock,  a  sense  of  excru- 


38  HELPLESS  IN  THE  DEBRIS. 

ciating  pain,  involving  my  right  breast,  shoulder  and  arm.  The 
thought  came  upon  me  that  I  was  being  crushed  to  death,  that  I 
could  not  long  endure  the  agony  I  then  suffered,  and  that  death 
would  soon  come.  I  watched  for  the  change,  expecting  in  a  mo- 
ment to  know  the  reality  of  eternity.  I  heard  the  moan  of  my 
eldest  son,  who  was  at  my  side  when  the  crash  came. 

I  felt  myself  struggling  with  my  left  hand,  clutching  at  some- 
thing, I  know  not  what.  I  heard  the  voice  of  my  youngest  son, 
as  I  thought,  imploring  me  to  aid  him.  I  told  him  I  was  powerless 
to  succor  him.  A  moment  later  and  I  realized  that  he  was  endeavor- 
ing to  have  me  reach  a  higher  elevation,  when  I  told  him  my  whole 
right  side  was  crushed  ;  he  came  to  my  relief  and  aided  me  in 
getting  upon  a  fragment  of  a  slate  roof  A  moment  after,  a  little 
boy,  whom  I  had  sheltered,  appeared  and  informed  me  that  my 
wife  was  drowned  ;  he  had  barely  made  this  announcement,  when 
I  saw  my  only  daughter,  June,  rise  up  out  of  the  water  among  the 
debris  to  perhaps  her  waist  and  immediately  sink  out  of  sight. 
As  she  sank,  I  saw  my  wife  rise  out  of  the  water  to  about  her  waist 
and  almost  immediately  sink  out  of  sight;  a  moment  after  they  rose 
together,  and  I  saw  my  son  Winter,  a  lad  of  20  years,  a  strong, 
robust  person,  and  heard  him  say :  "  Ma,  hold  on  to  me,  and  I  can 
save  you."  I  was  lying  on  my  left  side,  perhaps  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  feet  distant  from  where  my  wife,  daughter  and  son  were  strug- 
gling, the  skin  torn  from  the  right  side  of  my  face,  the  blood  flow- 
ing profusely  from  the  wound,  the  skin  torn  from  the  back  of  my 
left  hand,  my  right  collar-bone  broken,  my  shoulder-blade  fractured, 
the  ribs  crushed  in  upon  my  lung,  my  right  arm  from  shoulder  to 
wrist  lying  limp  on  my  side,  powerless  to  give  aid  or  assistance 
to  my  loved  ones.  At  this  moment,  a  young  man  seemed  to  shoot 
up  out  of  the  debris  at  my  side  ;  I  realized  that  he  was  an  ac- 
quaintance, but  could  not  name  him.  I  at  once,  however,  addressed 
him,  saying:  "Young  man,  won't  you  go  and  help  Winter  save 


r 


STRUGGLES  FOR  LIFE. 


41 


my  wife  and  daughter?  I  am  helpless,  my  whole  right  side  and  arm 
are  crushed."  He  made  no  reply,  but  at  once  hastened  across  the 
debris  and  aided  in  relieving  my  wife  from  the  timbers  in  which 
she  was  pinioned.  Then  he  immediately  disappeared  from  my 
sight ;  but  I  afterward  learned  he  was  Harry  Phillips,  who  was 
reared  in  Johnstown,  was  then  practicing  his  profession  of  dentis- 
try in  Pittsburgh;  was  home  on  a  visit  and  in  the  house  of  Dr.  L. 
T.  Beam,  and  was  the  only  person  who  escaped  with  his  life,  while 
his  mother,  niece,  nephew  and  brother-in-law  were  lost  in  the  flood. 
My  eldest  son  had  disappeared.  I  believed  I  had  heard  his  dying 
moan.  All  the  other  inmates  of  my  house  at  the  time  it  was  struck 
were  now  floating  on  different  fragments  of  houses,  and  being 
rushed  with  fearful  velocity  in  a  westerly  course  to  and  across  the 
Stony  Creek  River. 

Here  I  saw  a  stout  roof  floating  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  mass 
of  debris ;  I  told  my  family  that  if  that  roof  could  be  reached, 
there  was  a  chance  to  escape,  as  the  roof  might  drift  to  the  hillside, 
whei"e  escape  was  possible ;  we  were  then  slowly  drifting  down 
the  stream  toward  the  stone  bridge ;  we  all  reached  the  roof  in 
safety,  my  boys  assisting  me  to  gain  it.  After  we  had  reached  it, 
an  elderly  lady  was  observed  floating  near  us  upon  a  shutter  or 
door,  on  her  bended  knees,  her  hands  clutching  each  side  of  her 
frail  support.  Winter  made  his  way  across  the  debris,  took  her 
in  his  arms  and  brought  her  to  the  roof;  and  there  were  now 
upon  it,  this  elderly  lady,  with  my  wife,  daughter,  two  sons,  the 
strange  boy,  a  domestic  and  myself.  Scarcely  was  the  com- 
plement of  passengers  complete,  when  the  current  turned,  and  our 
ship  was  driven  with  terrific  velocity  directly  up  the  channel  of  the 
Stony  Creek,  following,  as  near  as  I  can  tell,  its  southwestern 
bank,  distant,  perhaps,  twenty  feet  from  the  margin.  In  this  man- 
ner we  were  carried  a  distance  of  half  a  mile,  following  the  sinu- 
osity of  the  stream,  coming  to  rest   above    Morris  Street,  in  the 

3  . 


42  A  DEATH  KNELL. 

Fifth  Ward  ;  here  we  lay  for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  while 
buildinors  and  fragments  of  buildino-  and  all  sorts  of  material 
passed  on  up  the  stream.  At  length  there  was  dead  water  about 
us,  when  some  unknown  and  to  me  inexplicable  force  drove  us 
across  the  river  into  the  mouth  of  Franklin  Street,  where  we  rested 
for  a  considerable  period  of  time.  The  current  having  changed,  the 
buildings  and  debris  were  now  being  driven  rapidly  down  the 
stream,  some  of  them  being  jammed  and  crushed  to  atoms,  while 
persons  who  had  taken  refuge  on  them,  with  wild  shrieks,  sank  to 
watery  graves.  A  cold  and  pitiless  rain  poured  down  upon  us, 
causing  me  to  have  frequent  and  severe  chills.  At  this  time  the 
spire  of  St.  John's  Catholic  Church  was  on  fire,  and  as  we  floated 
about  we  were  in  plain  view  of  the  flames  as  they  leaped  up  the 
magnificent  spire  and  consumed  the  emblem  of  Christianity  which 
graced  its  lofty  top.  As  we  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  waves,  within, 
perhaps,  a  hundred  feet  of  my  office,  which  stood  hard  by  the 
Lutheran  Church,  on  whose  spire  was  affixed  the  town  clock,  with 
its  ponderous  bell,  far  above  the  flood  tide,  the  mechanism  of  the 
clock  moved  on,  the  hands  reached  the  hour,  the  spring  was  raised, 
and  five  times  the  ponderous  hammer  struck  the  massive  bell, 
tolling  the  dreadful  knell  of  the  thousands  who  had  perished  in 
that  awful  hour.  No  one  except  him  who  has  passed  the  same  or- 
deal can  imagine  the  horrible  sensation  the  slowly  beating  strokes 
of  that  clock  sent  thrilh'nof  throus^h  the  floatinor  survivors  of  that 
terrible  hour,  the  climax  of  the  catastrophe. 

By  a  sudden  freak  of  the  flood,  we  were  driven  again  into  the 
stream  and  floated  down  a  distance  of  a  hundred  yards,  where  we 
were  struck  by  a  heavier  building  and  driven  over  the  bank  and 
lodp-ed  among-  a  lot  of  debris  and  brouo-ht  to  rest.  Findino-  our- 
selves  at  rest,  and  seeing  that  the  house  of  Dr.  S.  M.  Swan,  a 
three-story  brick  building,  stood  intact,  we  made  our  way  over 
roofs,  timber,  logs  and  the  like,  and  just   as   the    clock   tolled  the 


WORSE   THAN  WAR. 


43 


hour  of  six,  having  had  two  hours  of  terrible  floating,  we  entered 
the  haven. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  the  terrors  of  the  following 
night,  with  its  thousand  and  one  alarms,  as  the  crash  of  build- 
ings was  heard  as  they  settled  in  the  water  or  were  crushed  by  the 
weight  from  above  ;  suffice  it  to  say,  it  was  a  night  of  awful  terror, 
and  over  all  was  the  ghastly  and  lurid  light  that  came  from  the 
burninof  debris  at  the  stone  bridg-e  below.  At  leno-th  morninof 
came,  and  with  it  the  first  sense  of  relief,  for  then  we  learned  with 
certainty  that  the  waters  were  subsiding,  that  an  outlet  had  been 
made  by  the  giving  away  of  the  embankment  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad,  and  there  was  no  further  danger  to  be  apprehended,  as 
the  flood  had  reached  and  passed  its  climax,  leaving  a  torn  and 
devastated  town,  upon  whose  wreck  the  stoutest  heart  on  that 
Saturday  never  dared  to  dream  would  be  rebuilt  a  town.  By 
4  o'clock  on  Saturday,  my  two  sons,  who  had  been  separated 
from  us  in  the  flood,  rejoined  us,  and  we  found  all  had  safely 
escaped  with  life  and  limb,  I  alone  being  injured.  From  my  in- 
juries I  have  not  yet  recovered,  and  am  only  able  to  dictate  this 
narrative,  which  fact  must  be  my  excuse  for  any  want  of  directness 
and  polish. 

3. STATEMENTS    REGARDING    OTHER    SUFFERERS. 

.     .     .     "  The  ties  that  strengthen 
Our  hearts  in  hours  of  grief." 

One  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  the  Conemaugh  Val- 
ley, a  brave  soldier  in  the  civil  war,  lately  remarked,  in  substance, 
as  follows  :  "  I  have  seen  two  contending  armies  meet  each  other 
on  the  field  of  battle ;  I  have  seen  cannon  belching  forth  smoke 
and  iron  hail  into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  and  have  felt  the  yield- 
ing earth  tremble  beneath  my  feet  at  each  discharge  ;  I  have  heard 
the  terrible  roar  of  musketry  and  all  the  noise  of  battle,  and  have 


44 


A  T  SOUTH  FORK  DAM. 


witnessed  comrades  falling  all  around  me  ;  and  after  the  battle 
was  over  I  have  followed  the  long  and  bloody  lines  of  carnage  and 
destruction,  beholding  the  results  of  the  awful  conflict,  until,  with 
an  aching  heart,  I  turned  away  from  the  scenes  of  bloodshed  and 
distress  ;  but  I  declare  to  you  that  the  sights  and  sufferings  attend- 
ing our  appalling  flood  were  the  most  sickening  and  terrible  I 
ever  witnessed."  In  fact.  Colonel  Jacob  Higgins  and  Major 
Robert  Litzenger,  two  of  our  most  thoughtful  citizens,  who  have 
been  through  two  wars,  assure  me  that  nothing  occurred  in  their 
army  life  to  be  compared  with  the  horrors  of  the  evening  and  night 
of  the  3 1  st  of  May,  1 889.  The  presence,  in  the  indescribable  calam- 
ity, not  only  of  men,  as  is  usual  on  the  battle-field,  but  also  of  moth- 
ers, wives,  sisters  and  daughters,  and  of  the  whimpering  little  ones 
pleading  for  protection  and  food  ;  the  falling  of  brick  buildings, 
crushing  both  men  and  women  beneath  them  ;  the  floating  of 
frame  houses,  carrying  off  and  destroying  their  occupants  ;  the 
agonies  of  maternity  ;  the  burning  of  many  of  our  citizens  alive  at 
the  fatal  bridge  ;  together  with  an  awful  sense  of  helplessness  that 
oppressed  us  all — these  circumstances  presented  a  state  of  things 
unparalleled  in  Its  appalling  character. 

Of  the  breaking  of  the  artificial  lake,  which  was  the  largest 
human  factor  in  this  awful  calamity,  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Brown,  pastor 
of  the  South  Fork  United  Brethren  Church,  writes  me :  "  The 
lake  was  a  little  over  two  miles  south  of  our  village,  and,  by  the 
water  course,  fifteen  miles  from  Johnstown.  It  covered  750  acres 
of  ground,  and  had  an  average  depth  of  over  30  feet.  Having 
heard  the  rumor  that  the  reservoir  was  leaking,  I  went  up  to  see 
for  myself.  It  then  wanted  10  minutes  of  3  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon of  Friday,  May  31st.  When  I  approached,  the  water  was 
running  over  the  breast  of  the  dam  to  the  depth  of  about  a  foot. 
The  first  break  in  the  earthen  surface  made  a  few  minutes  later 
was  large  enough  to  admit  the  passage  of  a  train  of  cars.     When 


THE  DAM  BURSTS. 


45 


I  witnessed  that,  I  exclaimed,  '  God  have  mercy  on  the  people 
below,'  but  I  did  not  then  suppose  that  the  destruction  of  the  lake 
would  be  attended  by  so  great  loss  of  human  life. 

"The  dam  melted  away,  oh,  how  quickly!  Only  a  few  mo- 
ments were  required  to  make  an  opening  more  than  300  feet  wide 
and  down  to  the  bottom.  I  watched  it  until  the  wall  that  held 
back  the  waters  was  torn  away,  and  the  entire  lake  began  to  move, 
and  until,  finally,  with  a  tremendous  rush  that  made  the  hills 
quake,  the  vast  body  of  water  was  poured  out  into  the  valley  be- 
low. Only  about  45  minutes  were  required  to  precipitate  those 
millions  of  tons  of  water  upon  the  unsuspecting  inhabitants  of 
the  Conemaugh  Valley ;  and  right  here  it  began  its  work  of 
destruction.  A  mill,  house  and  stable,  owned  by  George  Fisher, 
were  demolished  in  an  instant.  Fortunate  it  was  for  him  that,  a 
few  minutes  before,  he  and  his  family  had  moved  to  higher 
ground.  He  had  conveyed  a  milk  wagon,  a  plow  and  other  im- 
plements to  a  more  elevated  spot,  supposing  they  would  be 
safe  there  ;  but  the  mighty  rush  of  water  leaped  over  the  hills  and 
carried  off  his  and  other  people's  property,  to  be  seen  no  more. 

"It  was  but  an  instant  apparently  before  the  mighty  torrent 
tossed  into  the  air  the  iron  bridge  that  spanned  the  South  Fork, 
and  crushed,  beyond  recognition,  the  house  and  two  barns  belong- 
ingr  to  Georgfe  Lamb.  Onward  dashed  the  destructive  flood,  roar- 
ing  like  a  mighty  battle,  tree-top  high,  toward  South  Fork  village, 
rolling  over  and  over  again  rocks  that  weighed  tons  and  tons, 
carrying  them  a  mile  or  more  from  the  spot  where  they  had  lain 
for  ag^es." 

The  Chicago  and  New  York  limited  train,  upon  which  the 
Rev.  James  W.  Putnam,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Frank  Hatton, 
Esq.,  of  the  Washington  Post,  were  passengers,  had  been  detained 
at  South  Fork  village  from  early  in  the  morning,  on  account  of  a 
washout  some  miles  beyond.     Learning  of  the  impending  danger 


46 


TRACK  OF  THE  FLOOD. 


the  engineer  pulled  out  just  in  time  to  escape  the  destruction.  A 
freight  train  was  less  fortunate ;  for  the  officers  were  able  only  to 
uncouple  the  engine  from  the  cars,  and  in  great  haste  pull  across 
the  Conemaugh  bridge  just  a  moment  before  it  was  swept  away. 
The  abandoned  train  was  entirely  wrecked,  and  two  of  the  brake- 
men,  Thomas  Henderson,  of  Derry,  and  Thomas  Kehoe,  of 
Altoona,  went  down  with  the  flood.  Two  citizens  of  South  Fork 
village,  Michael  Mann  and  Howard  Schaffer,  also  perished,  and 
considerable  property  was  there  destroyed. 

Let  us  follow  the  line  of  devastation  down  to  what  is  known 
as  the  viaduct,  the  only  bridge  of  the  old  Portage  Road,  utilized  by 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company.  The  railroad  at  this  point, 
a  mile  and  a  quarter  west  of  South  Fork  Station,  was  completely 
wrecked.  In  fact,  for  most  of  that  distance,  the  roadbed  was 
entirely  washed  away. 

In  passing  from  South  Fork,  before  reaching  the  viaduct,  the 
Conemaugh  River  makes  a  sudden  bend  to  the  left.  The  following 
cut  will  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  locality  : 


The  dotted  line  represents  the   railroad,    and   the  continuous 
lin-e  the  course  of  the  creek,  or  Little  Conemaugh  River. 

At  the  point  where  the  river  bends  suddenly  to  the  left,   the 


MARVELS  OF  THE  FLOOD. 


47 


roadbed  is  cut  through  the  narrow  rocky  ledge,  a  distance  of 
about  seventy-five  feet  to  the  point  where  it  strikes  the  river 
aeain.  Where  it  leaves  the  river  at  the  eastern  bend,  the  alti- 
tude  is  about  twenty  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  stream,  and  at  the 
viaduct  the  roadbed  was  over  seventy  feet  above  the  bed  of  the 
river,  but  now  measuring  over  eighty  feet,  more  than  ten  feet 
having  been  washed  out  by  the  flood.  Whilst  the  distance  around 
the  bend  is  two  miles,  the  cut  straight  across  is  less  than  one  hun- 
dred feet.  Here  occurred  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  deluge,  a 
sight  which,  if  any  human  eye  was  permitted  to  witness  it,  must 
have  thrilled  the  soul  of  the  beholder :  when  the  rushing  torrent 
reached  the  bend  of  the  river,  it  divided,  one  part  passing  through 
the  cut  in  the  mountain  and  plunging  down  over  the  viaduct,  and 
the  other  following  the  proper  channel.  A  volume  of  water  twenty 
feet  deep  poured  through  the  railroad  cut  and  over  the  viaduct, 
carrying  with  it  debris  of  every  description — trees,  buildings, 
rocks,  etc., — depositing  them  to  a  greater  height  than  was  wreck- 
age afterward  hurled  at  the  stone  bridge.  The  tell-tale  marks 
that  the  flood  left  behind  it  go  to  show  that  the  debris  was  piled 
up  125  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  stream.  But  all  this  accumulated 
rubbish  was  carried  away  when  the  rush  of  water  that  followed  the 
regular  course  of  the  stream  reached  that  point,  and  then  with 
gathered  force,  exceeding  that  with  which  it  had  issued  from  the 
reservoir  itself,  it  swept  on  down  to  the  next  village  called  Min- 
eral Point,  where  forty  houses  were  carried  away  in  a  shorter 
time  than  it  requires  to  read  this  page,  and  where  the  following  named 
sixteen  persons  found  a  watery  grave  :  Samuel  Kohler,  James 
Wilson,  Samuel  Page,  wife  and  two  children,  Mrs.  Christopher 
Gormley  and  six  children,  Mrs.  Abram  Byer  and  mother,  and 
Mrs.  Burkhardt. 

The  pastor  of  the  M.  E.  Church  of  that  place  informs  me  that 
when  his  church  building  was  moved  from  its  foundation,  the  bell 


48  THE  TOCSIN'  OF  ALARM. 

began  to  toll  and  continued  to  strike  a  singular  dirge  until  the 
edifice  went  to  pieces. 

Sweeping  around  the  great  bend  above  East  Conemaugh,  the 
grand  and  terrific  scenes  of  the  viaduct  were  repeated.  Regard- 
ing the  first  view  of  the  great  wall  of  water  as  it  approached  East 
Conemaugh  and  Franklin,  two  of  the  upper  villages  of  our  cluster 
of  towns  (included  in  what  is  commonly  called  the  city  of  Johns- 
town) situated  on  opposite  sides  of  the  river,  the  Rev.  J.  A. 
Smith,  pastor  of  the  United  Brethren  Church,  sends  me  the  follow- 
ing statement :  "  Whilst  looking  from  the  up-stairs  window  of  our 
residence,  on  the  Franklin  side,  having  an  elevated  view  of  the 
river  and  town,  watching  the  piles  of  drift  borne  upon  the  surging 
current,  marking  the  gradual  rise  of  the  water  on  the  river  banks, 
the  roar  of  the  mighty  torrent  fell  upon  my  startled  ears,  and,  at 
once,  the  appalling  situation  of  the  people  in  the  valley  was  ap- 
parent. At  that  moment,  the  shriek  of  a  locomotive,  that  came 
rushing  full  speed  into  the  yard,  sounded  forth  the  tocsin  of  alarm. 
This  was  engine  Number  1124,  class  R.,  J.  C.  Hess,  engineer,  and 
J.  B.  Plumer,  fireman.  They  had  been  up  the  railroad  about  a 
third  of  a  mile,  their  enorine  lookino-  west,  with  a  number  of  freio^ht 

'00'  o 

cars  ahead  of  them,  when  they  suddenly  heard  the  roar  of  the 
waters  up  the  valley,  and  looking  in  that  direction  beheld  the  im- 
mense avalanche  rushing  toward  them.  Mr.  Hess  immediately 
opened  up  the  throttle  of  the  engine,  and  pushing  ahead  of  him 
the  intruding  cars,  made  his  way  in  advance  of  the  swift  deluge 
in  the  chase  until  he  reached  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  yard,  just 
opposite  the  house  of  Master  Mechanic  Syane.  Here  he  aban- 
doned his  faithful  engine,  still  sounding  out  the  alarm  whilst  he  ran 
to  his  home  near  by  and  carried  his  family  to  the  hills  just  in  the 
nick  of  time. 

"The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  property  was  all  swept  away,  and 
much  of  their  track   was    torn  up  and  washed  off.     The    Round 


A  T  THE  DA  Y  EXPRESS.  49 

House  succumbed  to  the  force  of  the  current  Kke  a  toy  in  the  hands 
of  a  giant,  and  more  than  thirty  huge  engines  rolled  down  the 
stream  like  so  many  pebbles." 

The  sections  of  the  day  express  and  also  the  mail  train  had 
been  detained  at  this  point  here  in  consequence  of  the  washout 
already  referred  to. 

In  answer  to  my  request  for  his  experience  in  our  disaster,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  T,  H.  Robinson,  Professor  in  the  Western  Theological 
Seminary,  at  Allegheny,  Pa.,  a  passenger  on  the  day  express, 
writes  that  his  train  was  put  on  a  siding  upon  reaching  Cone- 
maugh.  He  continues:  "Another  passenger  train  was  there 
before  us,  and  soon  after  section  2  of  our  train  joined  us.  After 
a  little,  it  was  seen  that  the  river  was  working  in  on  our  track,  when 
we  were  moved  back,  soon  after  which  the  track  fell  into  the  river. 
We  were  moved  again,  and  the  second  track  fell  into  the  river. 
While  these  things  were  going  on,  I  and  other  passengers  were 
walking  about  in  the  rain,  up  and  down  the  tracks,  watching  the 
rise  of  the  river,  the  destruction  of  tracks,  the  descent  of  flood- 
wood  and  the  encroachment  on  two  bridges  near  by  ;  or  we  sat  in 
our  trains  reading,  writing,  conversing,  etc.,  unconscious  of  danger. 
There  we  were  from  a  little  after  10  a.m.  until  4  p.m.  I  was  busy 
part  of  the  time  making  up  a  diary  of  events  for  my  wife.  Soon 
a  crash  told  us  that  one  of  the  bridges  had  gone  ;  still  we  felt  safe. 
Rumors  were  about  of  a  reservoir  up  the  road  somewhere  that 
might  give  way,  but  we  knew  nothing  of  the  real  peril.  All  at  once, 
as  I  had  taken  up  my  book  to  read  again,  a  shrill,  long  whistle 
sounded  from  an  engine  near  by.  The  people  in  my  car  rose  to 
their  feet  and  began  asking  what  it  meant.  No  one  knew.  I  said 
to  a  lady  near  by  me,  '  I  presume  there  is  no  danger ;'  but  looking 
out  of  my  car  window,  I  saw  a  huge  mass  of  trees  and  flood-wood 
and  water,  about  two  or  three  hundred  feet  away,  moving  toward 
the  train.     I  at  once  cried,  'We  must  get  out  as  soon  as  possible.' 


50 


AN  A  WFUL  SCENE. 


Our  passenger  trains  and  a  freight  were  lying  side  by  side,  the 
freight  nearest  the  river,  our  train  next,  the  other  train  between 
us  and  the  town  and  safety.  As  I  got  out  of  my  car,  I  saw  three 
ways  before  me :  dimb  over  section  No.  2  or  crawl  under  it,  or 
run  down  the  track  with  the  flood  four-car  lengths  and  around  the 
train.  I  instantly  chose  the  latter.  No  one  else  followed  me  so 
far  as  I  saw,  but  all  attempted  the  other  courses.  I  got  safely 
around  the  trains.  Between,  me  and  the  first  street  of  the  town 
ran  a  ditch  quite  deep.  Happily  for  me,  just  below  where  I  struck 
it,  there  was  a  plank  across,  and  in  a  moment  I  was  over  it.  This 
ditch  was  a  fatal  p'lace  to  some.  A  man,  his  wife  and  sister,  who 
sat  by  me  in  the  car,  attempted  to  get  over  or  under  section  2. 
The  man  and  his  wife's  sister  were  not  seen  again,  but  the  wife, 
climbing  back  into  the  car,  was  saved.  My  flight  down  stream  had 
taken  me  away  from  the  rest  of  the  people,  and  I  found  myself 
almost  wholly  alone,  pressing  up  an  alley  toward  the  hillside  back 
of  the  town.  I  ran  to  the  second  street,  and,  hoping  I  might  be 
safe,  I  turned  and  looked.  The  houses  were  floating  away  behind 
me,  and  the  flood  was  getting  round  above  me.  I  ran  on  to  the 
third  street  and  turned  again  ;  the  water  was  close  behind  me, 
houses  were  toppling  over,  and  the  torrent  again  pushing  round  as 
if  to  head  me  off.  I  ran  now  up  rising  ground  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  and  soon  found  I  was  beyond  the  flood.  What  an  awful 
sight  presented  itself  as  I  turned  and  looked :  houses  falling  and 
sweeping  down  stream ;  some  six  or  eight  rods  away,  two  men 
were  dragging  a  woman  with  all  their  might ;  one  car  broken 
loose  and  going  down  stream  in  plunging  water,  two  men  on  top, 
others  inside.  It  was  awful  to  see  the  men  as  the  car  rolled  from 
side  to  side  trying  to  keep  on  top.  Then  all  the  trains  started 
down  the  river,  a  number  (I  know  not  how  many)  inside.  I  cried 
out  in  anguish,  'They  are  gone  !'  They  went  about  five  hundred 
feet,  and  were  stopped  very  strangely,  our  engine  being  lifted  up 


DR.  GRAHAM'S  EXPERIENCE. 


51 


and  flung  upon  the  head  of  the  other  train.  Engines  from  the 
Round  House  were  rolled  down  against  it,  a  mass  of  trees  was 
lodged  here  and  a  breakwater  formed.  The  rear  cars  also,  one  or 
more,  were  thrown  from  the  track  against  the  freight  train,  and 
the  whole  four  trains,  save  two  or  three  cars,  were  held  in  the 
midst  of  the  flood." 

George  M.  Graham,  M.D.,  of  Port  Royal,  Juniata  County,  Pa., 
who  was  also  a  passenger  on  one  of  these  trains,  writes  :  "  I 
stepped  on  the  platform  of  one  of  the  gondola  cars,  and  looking 
east  of  the  river,  I  saw  what  appeared  like  a  bank  of  water  coming 
with  fearful  velocity.  Rolling  at  great  height  in  its  passage  it 
showed  trees,  roots  and  bodies  of  trees,  with  debris  of  all  kinds. 
I  quickly  reported  the  danger  to  those  in  the  car.  The  passengers 
tumbled  out  in  all  haste,  some  passing  under  the  train  on  the 
north  track,  as  that  was  the  direction  of  escape  and  safety.  An 
old  minister  of  Kalamazoo,  Michigan,  got  out  of  the  rear  car  with 
his  wife,  and,  seeing  the  waters  so  close,  called  to  her  to  come 
back,  which  she  did,  both  re-entering  the  car.  There  was  a  gully 
or  ditch  a  few  rods  north  of  the  train,  running  parallel  with  the 
track.  It  was  about  ten  feet  wide  and  five  and  one-half  deep. 
After  passing  around  the  rear  car  of  the  second  section,  I  jumped 
across  the  ditch  to  the  farther  bank.  I  then  had  open  space  to  see 
the  approach  of  the  torrent,  and  I  felt  safe,  as  by  running  fifty  or 
sixty  yards  over  level  ground  would  allow  me  to  enter  the  street 
where  the  grade  ascended.  Feeling  secure  myself,  I  determined 
to  help  others.  Just  to  my  left,  into  the  ditch,  arm-pit  deep,  I  saw 
nine  women  and  girls  tumble.  I  instantly  grabbed  the  hand  of 
the  first  and  quickly  pulled  her  out ;  the  meanwhile  all  the  others 
reached  for  me  at  once.  I  succeeded  in  saving  them  all  except  one 
old  lady.  I  said  to  her,  '  Give  me  your  hand  quick  !  quick  !  quick  ! 
Give  me  your  hand  !'  She  evidently  was  bewildered,  for  she  re- 
plied. Twill  go  this  way,'  and,  walking  toward  the  maddened 
waters,  she  was  lost. 


5  2  A^ARRO  W  ESCAPES. 

"The  water  was  within  ten  feet  of  me  when  I  reached  the 
street  corner.  I  ran  about  fifty  yards  up  the  street,  took  a  long 
breath,  and,  upon  turning  around,  saw  a  building  half  way  across 
the  street  at  the  point  I  had  passed  not  thirty  seconds  before. 
The  next  instant  it  dashed  against  the  corner  and  was  surrounded 
by  five  or  six  feet  of  water.  The  force  of  the  water  lifted 
up  and  dashed  the  buildings  one  against  another.  The  roar- 
ing of  the  rushing,  fearful  water,  the  tumbling  and  crashing 
of  the  buildings,  and  the  wailing  and  cries  of  the  women  and 
children,  no  pen  can  describe.  One  poor  woman  came  to  me  in 
agonizing  distress,  with  her  gaze  so  intent  as  if  to  pierce 
the  water,  crying  out,  'Oh  my  baby!  My  dear  baby  is  in 
the  water!'" 

During  all  this  time  of  terror  the  scene  among  the  citizens, 
both  in  the  villao-e  of  East  Conemaugh  on  the  railroad  side  of  the 
stream,  and  in  Franklin  or  the  south  side,  was  awful  beyond  all 
description.  Frank  Traut,  on  his  way  to  work,  was  caught  by  the 
fatal  waters  near  the  ticket  grate  of  the  fair  ^rounds.  He  scram- 
bled  upon  the  roof  of  the  ticket  office  and  afterward  on  a  telephone 
pole,  which  soon  was  broken  ofi^  Then  he  seized  a  passing  log, 
on  which  he  dashed  ahead,  all  the  way  to  the  stone  bridge,  a  dis- 
tance of  over  two  miles,  where  he  took  hold  of  some  wreckage 
which,  by  the  back  water,  landed  him  near  the  Presbyterian  church 
on  Main  Street,  whence  he  worked  his  way  to  Alma  Hall  and  was 
saved. 

John  Keiper,  fireman  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  also 
caught  hold  of  a  drifting  log  which  carried  him  across  Johnstown 
proper  over  to  the  upper  end  of  Kernville,  a  distance  of  more 
than  three  miles. 

Two  daughters  of  Gustavus  McHugh,  of  East  Conemaugh, 
were  saved  at  the  Woodvale  Woolen  Mill,  by  some  men,  who 
threw  a  rope  to  them  as  they  approached  on  some  drift,  and 
pulled  them  in  through  a  window. 


VICTIMS  B  Y  THE   WA  Y. 


53 


J.  W.  Burkhardt  and  family  were  carried  in  their  house, 
which  kept  intact  until  it  struck  the  side  of  the  steep  hill  below 
the  Chemical  Works,  where  it  was  delayed  long  enough  for  them 
all  to  make  good  their  escape  from  the  roof. 

Among  the  victims  of  the  flood  from  this  place,  none  have 
been  more  widely  lamented  than  John  C.  Wilson,  M.D.,  and  his 
estimable  family.  The  Doctor  had  been  over  among  the  pas- 
sengers at  the  trains,  where,  thinking  of  no  danger,  he  had  held 
pleasant  and  protracted  conversation  with  a  brother  physician. 
Dr.  Graham,  of  Juniata  County.  Some  time  before  the  torrent 
came,  he  had  returned  to  his  beautiful  residence,  which,  with  its 
occupants,  went  down  in  the  deluge.  Being  a  ruling  Elder  and 
Sabbath  School  Superintendent  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the 
place  (the  Rev.  D.  M.  Miller,  pastor),  he  had  in  his  charge  the 
Church  records,  all  of  which  were  destroyed. 

Not  only  were  the  Doctor's  dwelling  and  the  dwellings  of 
other  citizens  destroyed,  but  even  the  lots  upon  which  these  dwell- 
ings stood  were  washed  away,  and  the  place  covered  with  water 
and  rocks  so  as  to  be  beyond  reclaim. 

These  are  the  names  of  the  resident  victims  from  East  Cone- 
maugrh  and  Franklin  : 

Dr.  J.  C.  Wilson  and  his  wife,  Carrie  Ida  Loudensteine. 

Wilson.  G.  Constable. 

Essie  Kiefer  and  child.  Solomon  Boyer. 

Sarah  Leech  and  daughter  Allie.  Sarah  Soy  and  son  Newton. 

W.  W.  Mills.  John  Atkinson. 

Miss  Devlin.  Mrs.  McHugh,  daughter  and  son. 

Peter   Rubritz,   wife  and    daughter  Mrs.  Burk. 

Maggie.  Mrs.  McKinn. 

Mrs.  Robine  and  two  children.  Mrs.  Sample. 

The  following-  are  the   names  of  those   known  to  have  been 

o 

lost  off  the  trains  at  East  Conemaugh : 


54  THE  FLOOD  AT  WOOD  VALE. 

Miss  Long,  of  Curwinsville,  Clear-  F.  Phillips,  the  colored  porter,  of  Phila- 

field  County,  and  three  children  delphia. 

in  her  charge.  Mrs.  J.  F.  King,  unknown  residence. 

Miss  J.  B.  Rainey,  of  Kalamazoo,  Miss   Annie  Bates,  of  Racine,  Wis- 

Mich.  consin. 

Miss  Paulson,  of  Pittsburgh.  Mrs.  E.    Swineford,  of  New    Berlin, 
Mr.  Ross  (a  cripple),  Pittsburgh.  Ohio,  and  her  daughter-in-law  of 

Miss  Elizabeth  M.  Bryan,  of  Phila-  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

delphia.  Pa.  Mrs.  McCoy  and  two  sons,  residence 
Mr.  Ewing,  of  Ligonier,  Pa.  unknown. 

Christ.  Meisel,  of  Newark,  N.  J.  Mrs.  H.  R.  Smith  and  3-year-old  child, 
W.  Shelley,  Newark,  N.  J,  residence  unknown. 

E.  Lyon,  of  New  York.  Miss  A.  C.  Christman,  New  Orleans, 
J.  R.  Day  and  daughter.  Prospect,  La. 

Harford  Co.,  Md. 

Woodvale,  the  next  town  below,  the  upper  part  of  which  is 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  and  containing,  as  Judge  Mas- 
ters informs  me,  nearly  eight  hundred  buildings,  like  another 
Chamouni,  was  swept  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  Although  most 
of  the  buildings  were  wooden,  yet  such  solid  brick  structures  as 
the  residence  of  John  Hannan,  the  school-houses,  and  the  Rosen- 
steel  tannery  were  swept  away.  The  only  walls  left  in  that 
village  were  parts  of  the  large  woolen  and  flouring  mills.  More 
than  one-third  of  the  population  were  drowned,  among  whom  were 
such  prominent  citizens  as  the  Alexanders,  the  Allisons,  the 
Rosensteels,  the  Nixons,  the  Joneses,  and  others,  for  pardculars 
regarding  whom,  see  chapter  on  Morgues. 

Mr.  Charles  B.  Clark,  the  compiler  of  the  valuable  directory 
of  Johnstown,  speaking  in  regard  to  the  destruction  in  the  Wood- 
vale  part  of  our  city,  writes,  "  Here  was  the  greatest  comparative 
loss  of  life,  excepting,  perhaps,  Washington  Street  in  Johnstown 
proper,  for  the  people  were  mostly  in  their  houses  and  went  down 
with  them.     Some  of  them,  hearing  the  noise,  attempted  to  run  to 


GAUTIER  MILLS  BLOTTED  OUT 


55 


the  hills,  forty  to  sixty  rods  distant,  but  not  many  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing" a  place  of  safety,  as  the  water  was  already  too  deep  for  rapid 
running;  and  what  added  to  the  horror  of  the  situation,  a  train  of 
freiofht  cars  was  standing  between  them  and  the  hill.  These  cars 
started  to  move  with  the  flood,  and  thus  many  perished  just  at  the 
portal  of  safety." 

On  swept  the  mighty  torrent  with  its  increased  freight  and  Con- 
emausfh  Borouofh  was  reached.  Here  also  there  was  an  almost  total 
destruction  of  the  lower  half  of  the  town,  including  the  section 
about  and  below  the  Gautier  Mills.  When  it  struck  those  works, 
with  their  numerous  fires  and  immense  machinery,  the  explosions 
that  took  place  were  simply  terrific,  destroying  human  life,  and 
scarcely  leaving  a  trace  of  those  great  industries.  As  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Fink  expressed  it,  who  was  watching  the  approaching  flood 
from  an  upper  window  of  his  house  in  Johnstown  proper,  "It  seemed 
as  if  the  whole  works  arose  and  moved  forward  on  the  water 
slide,  as  the  whole  came  down  the  valley." 

Among  those  who  had  the  most  awful  experience  in  this  part 
of  the  city  was  Mrs.  Jacob  Molzie,  who  was  floated  across  the 
Seventh  Ward,  and,  helpless  in  the  wreckage,  lay  all  night  in  the 
water,  fast  among  timbers,  with  only  a  part  of  her  face  above  the 
flood,  and  within  easy  reach  of  seven  dead  persons.  She  says  that 
the  luxuriant  hair  of  a  dead  woman  frequently  during  that  black 
Friday  night  swept  across  her  face.  Mrs.  Molzie  was  rescued 
on  Saturday. 

Mrs,  John  Ludwig,  a  wealthy  German  lady,  well  educated  in 
her  own  laneua^e  and  a  leadinsf  member  of  the  German  Lutheran 
Church,  said  to  me  in  her  broken  English,  "  My  son  Henry  and  his 
wife,  my  son  Charles  and  my  son-in-law,  August  Young,  all  got 
drowned.  My  pastor  and  his  wife  and  four  nice  little  children 
were  lost,  and  there  is  not  one  brick  of  our  good,  big  church 
left  on  top  of  another ;  and  here  is  the  key  of  our  church,  and  that 


5  6  [OHNS  TO  WN  O  VER  WHEL  MED. 

is  all  that  we  got  of  our  church.  Mr.  Beale,  I  think  my  heart  must 
break  with  my  much  trouble."  This  excellent  woman,  like  many 
others,  sank  under  her  grief  and  died  a  few  days  after. 

Before  sweeping  Johnstown  proper,  between  which  and  Con- 
emaugh  Borough  there  is  no  break  of  buildings,  the  great  volume 
of  water  divided  into  three  parts,  the  first  following  the  natural 
channel  of  the  river,  the  second  crossing  above  and  through  Con- 
emaugh  Borough  and  the  upper  wards  of  Johnstown,  destroying 
hundreds  of  stone  buildings,  including  the  German  Lutheran  Church 
and  the  Hulbert  House,  and  the  third  crossing  the  central  part  of 
the  city,  demolishing  the  Municipal  Buildings,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Hall, 
and  scores  of  the  most  elegant  private  residences  in  the  city,  I 
shall  now  give  the  experience  and  observation  of  a  number  of 
citizens  of  the  First,  Second,  Third  and  Fourth  Wards,  or  what  is 
known  as  Johnstown  proper. 

More  persons  perished  in  the  Hulbert  House,  one  of  our  best 
hotels,  situated  on  Clinton  Street,  near  Main,  than  in  any  other 
single  building  in  the  whole  city.  Most  of  the  guests  were  in  the 
office,  on  the  second  floor,  when  an  unusual  whistling  of  engines 
was  heard.  Thinking  that  a  fire  had  broken  out,  everybody  except 
F.  A.  Benford,  proprietor,  Walter  Benford,  clerk,  and  Mr.  H.  W. 
Galager  went  up  stairs  to  ascertain  where  it  was.  About  three 
minutes  afterward  Walter  Benford  walked  to  the  front  window, 
and  looking  toward  the  Conemaugh  saw  the  cloud  of  dust,  and 
thinking  Prospect  Hill  had  caved  in,  called  out,  "  My  God,  the  hill 
is  falling ;"  then  F.  A.  Benford  ran  to  the  door,  and  looking  up 
street  realized  what  had  happened,  and  told  Walter  and  Galager 
to  go  up  stairs,  remarking  that  he  would  go  back  to  the  kitchen  and 
tell  the  girls  of  the  danger.  When  he  had  done  so  he  looked  out 
of  the  side  door,  and  saw  the  first  wave  of  the  flood  coming.  He 
remembers  that  Mr.  Butler  and  Misses  Carrie  and  Mollie  Richards 
were  in  the  parlor  on  the  second  floor,  and  that  Mrs.  DeFrance 


mi 


AT  THE  HULBERT  HOUSE. 


59 


and  Miss  Jennie  Wells  had  already  reached  the  third  floor.  Just 
as  he  started  to  reach  the  fourth  floor,  Miss  Carrie  Deihl  ran  down, 
exclaiming,  "  Oh,  this  is  terrible."  He  had  just  reached  the  fourth 
floor  when  the  building  fell.  Walter  and  Galager  went  to  the 
third  floor  and  started  to  go  to  the  back  part  of  the  building,  and 
when  at  about  two-thirds  of  the  distance  the  brick  work  was  washed 
out  from  under  them,  leaving  the  upper  or  mansard  story  a  float- 
ing wreck.  They  got  upon  this  without  even  wetting  their  feet, 
and  by  it  were  saved.  All  stories  told  in  regard  to  traveling  men 
pinning  cards  on  their  coats,  bidding  each  other  good-by,  etc.,  are 
mere  fabrications.  The  crash  came  too  suddenly  for  such  premedi- 
tated farewells.  Mr.  J.  L.  Smith,  one  of  the  saved,  says  that  the 
flood  broke  instantly  on  the  house,  and  that  the  walls  fell  before  the 
people  realized  what  had  happened ;  and  that  they  all  rushed  for 
the  stairway  leading  to  the  fourth  floor ;  but  none  of  them  got 
farther  than  the  landing  before  the  rest  of  the  building  fell. 

The  saved  were : 

F.  A.  Benford,  proprietor.  Laura  Rodgers. 

Walter  Benford.  Elmira  Prosser. 

William  Marshall,  colored.  Maggie  Jones. 
Mary  Early. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  lost : 

Mrs.  E.  E.  Benford,  widowed  mother  Miss  Jennie  Smouse. 

of  the  proprietor.  "     Ellen  Johnson,  colored. 

Miss  Maria  M.  Benford.  Mr.    James  G.  Cox,  of  Philadelphia.. 

"     May  Benford.  "      W.  L.  Spitz. 

Mr.  G.  L.  Benford.  "      J.  A.  Little,  of  Pittsburgh. 
Mrs.  Jacob  Katzenstein  and  son.  "     Jonathan  Carlin,  of  Philadelphia. 

"     J.  L.  Smith  and  three  children.       "     James  Murray. 

"     H.  T.  DeFrance.  "     N.  F.  Dow. 

Miss  Carrie  Richards.  "      Charles  Dewatt. 

"     Mollie  Richards.  "      George  Randolph. 

4 


6o 


MRS.  CHAPMAN'S  EXPERIENCE. 


Miss  Jennie  Wells,  of  Shippensburg, 

Pa. 
Miss  Carrie  Deihl,  of  Shippensburg, 

Pa. 
Miss  Laura  Hamilton. 

"     Horner. 

"     Nellie  Clark. 

"     Ella  Byrne. 

"     Minnie  Huston. 

"     Maggie  Irwin. 

"     Jane  Maloy. 

"     Mary  Ridgers. 

'/     Ellen  Harrigan. 

"     Bertha  Stoppel. 

"     Lottie  Yost. 


Mr.  John  Byrne. 

"    J.  W.  Weakland. 

"    Charles  F.  Butler. 

"    Charles  Marshall. 

"     Elmer  Brinkey. 
Dr.  J.  C.  Brinkey. 
Mr.  J.  C.  Clark. 
Dr.  St.  John. 
Albert  Wherry. 
Mr. Herron. 

"    Charles  Wilson. 

"    William  Henry,  colored. 

"    Samuel  Etcheson. 
Unknown  young  lady,  monogram  J. 
H.  G. 


Mrs.  Agnes  C.  Chapman,  wife  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chapman, 
pastor  of  the  M.  E.  Church  of  Johnstown  proper,  gives  me  this 
statement : 

"About  4  o'clock,  Mr.  Chapman,  who  had  gone  to  the  front 
door,  returned  pale  and  affrighted,  exclaiming  that  doubtless  the 
reservoir  had  broken.  I  looked  out  of  the  study  window  and  saw 
the  waves  coming ;  it  seemed  to  me  half  as  high  as  our  house. 
I  ran  for  our  little  grand-daughter  Nellie,  and  started  up  stairs. 
There  were  present  myself  and  Nellie,  Mrs.  Brinker,  a  neighbor, 
who  had  come  into  our  house  for  safety ;  our  servant  girl,  and  a 
young  Mr.  Parker.  Mr.  Chapman  ran  into  the  study  to  turn  out 
the  natural  gas  in  the  parlor  fireplace.  Upon  reaching  the  second 
floor  I  looked  down  to  see  if  Mr.  Chapman  was  coming,  when  I 
saw  the  front  door  burst  open  and  the  water  rushing  in.  It 
seemed  to  me  to  be  half  way  up  the  front  stairs  in  a  moment.  I 
called  to  Mr.  Chapman  to  come  quick,  but  he  was  nearly  up  the 
back   stairs   by   that   time,   and  we  were  all  in   the  attic  in  a  few 


REV.  MR.  LANE'S  EXPERIENCE.  6  I 

moments.  We  all  stood  there  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  waitino- 
our  turn  to  be  swept  away,  and  expecting  every  minute  to  be 
drowned.  When  our  porches  were  torn  loose,  and  the  two  book- 
cases fell  over,  the  noise  led  us  to  think  the  house  was  going  to 
pieces.  But  fortunately  it  stood,  because  the  church  stood 
between  us  and  the  swift  current.  When  the  noise  of  houses 
scraping  against  ours  and  the  great  rush  of  water  had  somewhat 
diminished,  Mrs.  Brinker  asked  Mr.  Chapman  to  look  out  and  see 
if  their  house  was  still  standing.  But,  said  she,  "If  it  is  not, 
don't  tell  me."  He  looked  out,  then  turned  back,  but  said  nothing. 
Our  little  Nellie,  only  7  years  old,  then  peeped  out  and  said : 
"Yes,  Mrs.  Brinker,  your  house  is  gone — your  house  is  gone." 
We  knew  we  had  to  stay  there  all  night,  every  moment  of  which 
was  one  of  anguish  and  suspense,  as  there  were  eighteen  feet 
of  water  around  us  and  under  us.  There  were  nine  saved 
in  the  attic  with  us,  four  of  whom  got  into  our  second  story 
windows  and  ran  up  to  where  we  were ;  some  were  as  wet 
as  they  could  be.  We  gave  them  clothing  and  blankets  to  wrap 
around  them.  When  daylight  came,  we  all  walked  and  crawled 
out  over  the  roofs  of  houses  or  anything  that  would  hold  us  until 
we  reached  the  hillside." 

The  Rev.  James  A.  Lane,  the  well-known  local  preacher  in 
the  M.  E.  Church,  an  official  of  the  Cambria  Iron  Works,  lived  in 
an  elegant  brick  house  on  Locust  Street,  about  midway  between 
the  high  hill  back  of  the  town  and  the  Point,  or  stone  bridge.  Mr. 
Lane's  family  consisted  of  his  wife  and  her  mother,  Mrs.  Teeter; 
their  daughter  Jessie  and  her  husband,  Mr.  Harry  G.  Rose,  Esq., 
District  Attorney  of  Cambria  County.  On  this  fatal  day  they  were 
all  at  home  on  account  of  the  high  water.  The  first  indication 
of  the  coming  of  the  awful  catastrophe  was  seen  by  Mr.  Lane 
himself  as  he  stood  in  the  stairway  looking  down,  and  saw  large 
logs  dashing  in  at  the  window.     He  hastened  to  get  his  family  up 


62  AMID  THE   WRECKAGE. 

into  the  third  story.  He  had  hardly  succeeded  in  this  when  the 
two  lower  stories  fell  away,  leaving  the  third  floor,  covered  with  a 
mansard  roof  of  tin,  floating  deep  in  the  swelling  waves.  He 
found  himself  in  darkness,  up  to  the  neck  in  water,  and  wedged  in 
between  floating  logs.  The  whole  family  were  in  the  same  condi- 
tion, and  Mr.  H.  G.  Rose  was  killed  by  the  force  of  the  crushing 
timbers.  Mother  Teeter's  arm  was  cut  off  at  the  wrist,  it  is  supposed 
by  glass  from  the  mirror  of  a  dressing  bureau  which  fell  over  and 
struck  her.  She  was  so  seriously  injured  that  she  afterward  died. 
Three  times  Mr.  Lane  struggled  to  get  out  from  among  the  logs, 
and  finding  his  pantaloons  held  him,  he  took  out  his  knife  and  cut 
the  suspenders.  He  then  was  free,  and  with  his  fists  knocked  off 
the  boxing  around  the  trap-door,  and  got  out  on  the  roof.  In  his 
anxiety  to  get  his  family  out  he  was  heard  loudly  calling  for  some 
one  to  bring  him  an  axe.  In  pulling  Mrs.  Rose  from  among  the 
wreck,  she  received  considerable  injury.  He  was  himself  much 
bruised,  and  came  out  of  the  struggle  almost  naked. 

On  the  top  of  the  roof,  they  were  drifted  within  reach  of 
another  house,  and  got  upon  the  comb  of  its  roof.  Within  the 
attic  of  this  house  were  several  persons,  among  them  Mr.  Thomas 
Watt,  ticket  agent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  Mr.  Walters 
from  the  inside  and  Mr.  Lane  on  the  outside  effected  an  opening 
in  the  roof,  through  which  Mr.  Lane's  party  succeeded  in  escaping 
from  the  storm,  and  remained  in  the  attic  all  night.  The  house 
had  careened,  and  kept  cracking  and  threatening  to  go  to  pieces ; 
while  fire  from  the  stone  bridge  seemed  to  be  approaching,  and 
filled  them  with  dread  lest  it  should  reach  their  tottering  shelter. 
About  lo  o'clock  next  day  Mrs.  Lane  and  Mrs.  Rose  escaped  into 
the  Morrell  Institute.  But  owing  to  the  condition  of  Mother 
Teeter,  Mr.  Lane  remained  in  the  attic  with  her  until  4  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  when  they  joined  the  others  in  the  safer  building, 
and  thus  escaped. 


REV.  D.  M.  MILLER'S  EXPERIENCE.  d^) 

Among  the  varied  experiences  of  many  in  escaping  from  what 
appeared  to  be  certain  death,  perhaps  few,  if  any,  were  more 
thrilHng  than  that  of  Rev.  D.  M.  Miller  and  family. 

Mr.  Miller  is  pastor  of  the  Conemaugh  Presbyterian  Church 
in  that  part  of  the  city  commonly  called  East  Conemaugh,  and  his 
residence  was  at  No.  94  Vine  Street,  in  Johnstown  proper.  The 
family  assure  me  that  they  had  no  warning  of  the  bursting  of  the 
reservoir,  until  they  heard  a  fearful  noise  and  saw  buildings  sud- 
denly rising  from  their  foundations  a  half  square  away  and  float- 
ing toward  them,  crushing  fences,  shade  and  fruit  trees,  and  tele- 
phone and  electric  light  poles.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Miller  were  in  the 
second  story  of  their  residence.  Instantly  the  room  was  waist 
deep  with  water.  Mrs.  Miller  jumped  upon  a  bed,  which  suddenly 
rose  to  the  ceiling,  where  she  was  scarcely  able  to  breathe.  In  the 
meantime  the  rest  of  the  family  sprung  through  a  window  upon 
floating  boards  and  timbers,  urging  her  to  follow.  But  the  water 
having  risen  above  the  open  part  of  the  window,  the  lower  sash 
being  raised,  she  could  not  escape  until  by  great  effort  she  tore 
the  strip  from  one  side  of  the  window,  and  Mr.  Miller,  having 
recovered  himself  from  his  first  plunge  into  the  seething  mass,  with 
one  hand  caught  hold  of  the  spouting  under  the  eaves  of  the  house, 
and  with  the  other  broke  the  p^lass  of  both  sashes,  cuttino-  his 
hand  severely.  Then  with  his  foot  he  broke  the  sash  near  where 
she  was  hemmed  in,  so  that  diving  out  under  the  cap  of  the  win- 
dow, she  sprung  out  where  a  small  porch  roof  had  attached  to  the 
house  ;  but  unfortunately  it  had  just  been  torn  away,  and  she  sank 
out  of  sight.  Just  then  the  water  seemed  to  rise  several  feet,  and 
she  was  thrown  to  the  surface,  surrounded  with  rubbish  of  every 
kind,  and  seized  hold  of  the  spouting.  The  building  at  this 
moment  was  rapidly  floating  toward  the  Stony  Creek,  immedi- 
ately beyond  which  was  an  almost  perpendicular  mountain  four 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  high.     When  the  tide  crossed  the  river  and 


64  CLINGING   TO  THE  EA  VES. 

Struck  the  mountain,  there  was  a  fearful  rebound,  which  upset 
many  buildings  that  had  been  before  floating  upright.  Now  this 
part  of  the  flood,  with  its  scores  of  buildings  and  people,  divided 
into  three  currents.  One  turned  to  the  right  and  went  down  the 
already  overflowing  stream  to  the  terrible  gorge  at  the  large  stone 
bridge  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad ;  and  one  turned  to  the  left 
and  flowed  rapidly  up  the  channel  of  the  Stony  Creek,  carrying 
buildings  and  people  nearly  a  mile  up  that  stream  ;  the  other 
between  these  two  currents  was  thrown  back  in  the  direction  in 
which  it  came,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  all  floating  material 
to  describe  a  circle,  embracing  perhaps  fifteen  or  twenty  acres,  or 
about  four  squares  of  the  city.  This  return  tide  caught  Mr. 
Miller's  dwelling,  and  after  describing  about  two-thirds  of  a  com- 
plete circle,  it  landed  on  the  junction  of  two  streets  not  more  than 
a  hundred  yards  from  its  starting  point,  very  much  the  worse  for 
its  unfortunate  journey.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Miller  in  the  meantime 
were  still  clinging  to  the  water-spout,  and  were  being  dragged 
through  the  debris,  with  only  their  heads  above  the  water,  until  they 
discovered  on  their  housetop  two  of  their  neighbors.  Price  Davis 
and  John  Hennecamp,  who,  having  been  separated  from  their 
families,  had  been  thrown  upon  this  roof,  in  some  way,  they  knew 
not  how.  These  men,  upon  discovering  the  heads  of  the  unfortu- 
nate husband  and  wife,  at  once  crept  down  to  the  edge  of  the  wet, 
slippery  roof — for  it  was  raining  hard — and  undertook  the  difficult 
task  of  dragging  them  out  of  the  water  over  the  wide  cornice,  and 
up  to  the  comb  of  the  roof.  This  feat  only  strong,  steady  and 
cool-headed  men  could  have  accomplished,  risking  their  own  lives 
as  they  did  to  save  others  ;  but  they  were  successful,  and  the  clergy- 
man and  his  wife  were  saved,  yet  not  without  cuts  and  bruises, 
which  for  a  time  threatened  fatal  results.  Soon  after  a  lady  and 
boy  were  also  drawn  out  of  the  flood  upon  the  same  roof,  and 
all  sat  together  in  the   rain   and  wind  on   the   comb  of  the   roof 


MRS.  MASTERTON'S  EXPERIENCE.  65 

until  about  nightfall.  The  house  being  full  of  water,  their  only 
refuge  was  the  unfinished  attic,  where  they  sat  upon  a  narrow 
board,  without  room  to  stand  or  floor  on  which  to  lay  the  sick  and 
faint.  With  no  clothing  except  the  remnants  of  wet  and  filthy  gar- 
ments which  still  clung  to  their  persons,  they  spent  the  long,  dark, 
cold  and  dreary  night,  as  well  as  the  next  day,  until  the  middle  of 
the  afternoon,  before  they  were  reached  by  rescuers,  when,  after 
climbing  over  many  crushed  buildings,  they  gained  the  river  and 
were  taken  in  a  rude  boat  across  to  the  steep  mountain  on  the 
other  side.  They  then  walked  in  mud  and  water  nearly  half  a 
mile,  where  they  found  friends  and  refuge,  having  been  without 
food,  drink  or  sleep  for  twenty-eight  hours.  The  scenes  they  wit- 
nessed, the  sounds  they  heard,  and  the  experiences  through  which 
they  passed  can  never  be  described. 

On  this  same  roof  were  the  wife  and  only  child  of  John 
Hennecamp,  both  of  whom  perished  at  this  time. 

My  friend,  Mrs.  Masterton,  who  lived  on  Vine  Street,  near 
Market,  writes  me : 

"  We  had  been  watching  the  rivers  rise  and  overflow  the  town 
all  day.  I  had  rather  enjoyed  it,  as  it  was  my  first  experience 
of  the  kind.  Mr.  Masterton  came  home  from  his  business  before 
noon,  having  heard  that  the  water  was  in  our  part  of  the  town. 
Fortunately  the  water  rose  so  rapidly  that  he  could  not  leave  the 
house  again,  or  God  alone  knows  what  would  have  been  his  fate, 
for  you  know  his  portion  of  the  store  was  completely  demolished. 
We  could  see  quite  a  distance  up  the  Conemaugh  River  from  the 
windows  of  our  second  story  and  were  standing  there  talking  to 
our  neighbors,  the  WJiites,  when  the  great  rush  of  water  came 
upon  us.  Mr.  Masterton  called  to  Mr.  Delaney,  Mr.  White's 
son-in-law,  that  there  must  have  been  a  terrible  explosion  up  the 
river,  for  the  water  coming  looked  like  a  cloud  of  the  blackest 
smoke  I  ever  saw.     Almost  before   Mr.  Delaney  could  answer. 


66  HEROIC  RESCUES. 

his  house  was  hfted  and  turned  upside  down.  There  were  twelve 
members  of  their  family  in  the  house  at  the  time,  and  you  know 
the  fate  of  six  of  them,  Mr.  Masterton  took  our  litde  girl  in  his 
arms,  and  we  ran  to  the  attic,  the  water  following  us  up  the  stairs. 
I  cannot  tell  you  when  our  house  was  carried  away,  for  I  was 
not  conscious  that  it  had  moved  until  I  saw  that  we  were  just 
back  of  the  Market  Street  School-house.  Our  house  must 
have  turned  several  times,  for  we  were  bound  very  securely 
with  telegraph  and  electric  light  wires,  which  I  think  helped 
to  keep  it  from  overturning  as  all  about  us  had  done.  When 
we  had  recovered  ourselves  a  little,  we  began  to  look  around 
us  to  see  what  we  could  do.  We  succeeded  in  getting  twenty- 
seven  people  into  our  attic,  but  the  names  of  all  of  them  I 
cannot  tell  you,  as  they  were  entire  strangers  to  me. 

"  The  first  person  we  rescued  was  Joseph  Hipp,  our  mail 
carrier ;  he  had  floated  from  Conemaugh  Borough  and  was  very 
badly  bruised.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kirwin,  with  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
AVilliams,  their  three  children  and  a  young  Welsh  girl,  whom 
I  did  not  know,  were  the  next.  Mrs.  Williams,  during  the  night, 
g^ave  birth  to  a  child,  which  you  afterward  baptized  '  Moses.' 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Moore,  with  their  two  children  ;  Miss 
Alice  Kinney  and  her  brothers  Wills  and  Samuel;  two  young 
men  by  the  name  of  Stattler  (members  of  our  church,  I  think) ; 
Mr.  John  Jones  and  David  Davis,  carpenters ;  two  women  with 
two  children,  none  of  whom  I  knew,  and  a  very  old  woman,  I 
think  they  called  her  Auntie  Whannell,  and  her  son. 

"  Our  attic  was  perfectly  dry,  and  as  I  had  all  our  winter 
clothing  packed  there,  I  had  something  to  give  the  poor  drenched 
creatures  who  came  to  us.  We  were  taken  from  the  house  about 
lo  o'clock  on  Saturday  morning.  Of  the  twenty  or  thirty  houses 
around  us,  I  think  ours  was  the  only  one  that  was  not  crushed  or 
overturned.     It  was  burned,  however,  in  the  fire  of  June  24th." 


MR.  COLLI VER'S  EXPERIENCE.  67 

Mr.  William  T.  Colliver,  a  machinist,  who  lived  in  a  low  part 
of  the  Second  Ward,  on  Friday  afternoon  sat  with  his  wife  and 
daughter  Mary  in  the  second  story  of  their  house,  which  was 
already  flooded.  Mrs.  Colliver  is  an  invalid,  who  for  seven  years 
had  not  walked  without  assistance.  Mr.  Colliver  was  quite  cheer- 
ful, and,  having  watched  for  some  time  the  waters  in  the  street,  was 
assuring  his  neighbors  that  the  worst  was  over  and  that  the  water 
was  already  receding ;  but  he  shortly  changed  his  mind,  for  he 
saw  the  rush  of  the  great  flood  from  the  Conemaugh  Lake,  and 
the  houses  coming  toward  them.  He  said  to  his  family:  "Some- 
thing awful  has  occurred,  and  we  probably  must  all  die.  But  let 
us  be  calm,  and  give  ourselves  wholly  to  the  Lord."  At  the  same 
time  he  hurried  them  up  into  the  attic,  but  before  this  could  be  ac- 
complished they  were  already  knee-deep  in  the  water.  The  house 
was  lifted  from  its  foundation  and  borne  swiftly  away,  but  by  the 
favor  of  Providence  did  not  turn  over.     His  daughter  Mary  said, 

"Papa,  I  do  not  like  to  die  this  way." 

"  No,  daughter,  I  don't  like  to  die  this  way  either,  but  we 
must  submit  to  God's  will." 

"  But,  papa,  I  have  not  been  as  good  as  I  might  have  been. 
But,  father,  you  have  always  tried  to  be  good." 

"  So  have  you  always  tried  to  be  good,  Mary ;  but  let  us  give 
ourselves  wholly  to  the  Lord,  and  He  may  yet  save  us." 

"  But  you  won't  leave  us,  papa,  will  you  ?" 

"  No,  my  dear,  whatever  happens  we  will  stick  together ;  if 
we  must  die,  we  will  die  in  each  other's  arms." 

By  this  time  they  had  drifted  out  of  the  swift  current  toward 
Union  Street  School-house.  There  they  struck  upon  something 
which  anchored  the  house  and  held  it  fast.  They  began  to  feel' 
secure,  but  presently  they  saw  a  large  livery  stable  coming  swiftly 
toward  them,  and  they  expected  that  their  house  would  be  knocked 
to  pieces  ;  but  before  it  reached  them   it  was  caught  in  a  counter- 


68  A  PLACE   OF  REFUGE. 

current,  and  whirled  around  and  passed  by  widiout  touching  them. 
When  it  began  to  get  dark  they  found  that  so  many  houses  had 
gathered  between  them  and  the  school-house  that  it  was  possible, 
by  climbing  over  roofs,  logs  and  other  drift,  to  reach  that  more 
comfortable  place.  Several  had  already  done  so.  Mr.  Colliver 
shouted  to  Mr.Williams,  whom  he  saw  in  the  window  of  the  school- 
house,  to  come  and  help  him  get  his  invalid  wife  over.  He  and 
Mr.  Owens  came,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  Colonel  J.  P.  Linton, 
succeeded  in  getting  them  all  into  that  place  of  refuge,  where  they 
found  nearly  two  hundred  who  had  been  rescued  in  various  ways. 
A  number  of  these  were  suffering  from  injuries,  and  were  groan- 
ing from  pain,  while  others,  having  been  exposed  in  the  waters, 
were  shivering  with  cold.  Not  one  could  sleep,  and  it  was  a  long 
night  of  misery  and  terror.  When  daylight  appeared,  such  was 
the  joy  that  Mr.  Colliver  climbed  upon  the  roof  and  shouted,  "It  is 
morning  !  It  is  morning  !"  After  they  got  safely  away  the  next 
day  he  had  a  curiosity  to  know  what  had  anchored  the  house  in 
such  good  time.  He  found  that  five  open  railroad  cars  had  drifted 
into  the  neighborhood,  and  one  of  them  having  fallen  with  one 
end  into  a  cellar,  the  shaft  of  the  brake-wheel  had  run  through 
the  bottom  of  the  house  and  held  it  there. 

Mr.  J.  C.  McNeice,  agent  of  the  Adams  Express  Company, 
allows  me  to  use  the  following  concerning  his  experience  : 

"  My  wife,  two  children  and  myself  were  all  in  the  second  story 
of  our  residence  on  Lincoln  Street,  where  we  had  been  driven  by 
the  water  coming  into  the  first  floor  about  8.30  a.m.  The  water 
had  been  rising  very  slowly  for  almost  two  hours,  and  upon  going 
to  the  rear  of  the  building  which  was  of  brick,  about  4  p.m.,  I 
noticed  that  the  current  had  increased,  also  that  some  drift  which 
had  been  held  for  some  time  by  the  fence-post  had  moved  away. 

"  Being  unable  to  account  for  this,  I  started  toward  the  front  of 
the  building,  when  I  heard  a  commotion  and  people  crying  out, 


AFLOAT  ON  THE  DEBRIS.  69 

'The  reservoir  has  broken  !  '  Hastening  to  the  window,  I  saw  a 
frame  building  cross  Lincoln  Street  at  Market  Street  with  a  huge 
wave  of  water  following.  I  turned  round  to  inform  my  family,  but  at 
that  moment  water  came  pouring  into  the  second  story.  My  wife 
seizing  one  child  and  I  the  other,  we  got  up  to  a  window-sill,  over 
which  the  water  was  pouring  into  the  room,  and,  getting  on  the 
outside,  we  held  the  children  and  ourselves  by  clinging  to  the 
window-sash. 

"  While  standing  there,  with  the  water  in  front  and  in  the  rear 
of  us,  and  rising  rapidly,  and  buildings  being  removed  from  one 
lot  to  another  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  a  large  double 
frame  dwelling  was  thrown  against  our  building,  causing  the  bricks 
to  fall  all  around  us.  At  this  time  the  water  had  reached  to  our 
waists,  when  suddenly  a  pair  of  large  box  steps  came  shooting  up 
out  of  the  water  and  settled,  broadside  up,  directly  in  front  of  us. 
Seizing  the  steps,  I  got  my  family  on  them  and  transferred  them, 
together  with  Mrs.  Linton,  to  the  Armory  building  roof,  which  had 
swunsf  around  and  anchored  ag-ainst  the  lower  corner  of  our 
building.     . 

"As  the  rafters  under  the  tin  roof  of  the  Armory  building  began 
to  give  way,  we  scrambled  to  the  roof  of  the  house  occupied  by 
Mr.  T.  H.  Watt,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  agent,  and  Mr.  Ander- 
son H.  Walters,  where  we  remained,  with  some  thirty  others,  for 
about  two  hours  in  a  heavy  rain.  Those  who  were  on  the  roof 
were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Watt,  Mrs.  Ramsey,  grandmother  of  Mrs. 
Watt ;  Mrs.  Linton,  Mr.  \.  E.  Roberts,  Frank  and  Ed.  Buchanan, 
Mr.  Stackhouse,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Breniser  and  son,  who  came  down 
with  their  dwelling  from  Locust  Street ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mertz  and 
family,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Owens,  from  Locust  Street ;  Mrs.  Harris 
and  family,  Mrs.  Carroll  and  Mr.  Oswald,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lane, 
Mrs.  Harry  Rose  and  Mrs.  Teeter,  the  latter  being  badly  injured 
when  rescued  from  the  ruins." 


y  O  SA  VED  B  V  HER  HAIR. 

By  crawling  over  debris,   part  of  those  mentioned  reached 
Morrell  Institute  and  were  saved. 

Alfred  Easterbrook  states : 

"  Our  home  was  on  Union  Street,  which  is  about  the  lowest 
part  of  the  town,  and  as  early  as  7  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  that 
fatal  day,  the  water  was  rising  rapidly.     We  began   moving  the 
furniture  and  other  things  up  to  the   second  story  of  our  house, 
and  at  8  o'clock  we  were  all  chased  up  stairs  on   account  of  the 
water  coming  into  the  dwelling.     We  remained  there,  thinking  all 
the  time  that  the  water  would  go  down,  and  at  3  o'clock  we  thought 
it  had  Pfone  down  about  an   inch.     At  this   time  it  was  five   feet 
in  our  house.     At  about  4  o'clock  we  were   all   frightened  by  the 
cries  of  the  people  on  the  neighboring  hills,  and  before  we  could 
realize  what  had  happened,  we  saw  our  neighbors'  houses  floating 
toward  us.     I  rushed  for  the  attic,  and  then  dragged  my  wife  and 
children  up  after  me  ;  we  did  not  all  reach  the  attic  before  our 
house  was  afloat,  but  at  last  I  succeeded  in   getting  my  children 
up,  when  all  at  once  the  flue  of  my  house  fell  out.     I  then  rushed 
to  get  out,  and  I  succeeded.     Then  my  eldest  son  got  out  of  the 
attic  window,  on  to  the  side  of  the  house.     The  house  turned  over 
again,  and  parted  in  the  centre,  and  my  daughter  shot  out  of  the 
house,  but  just  as  she  was  half  way  out,   the  house  was   forced 
together  again,  holding  her  fast.     By  a  great  effort  we  released 
her  from  this  position.     All  this  time  my  wife  and  youngest  son 
were  under   the   water.     I    then    saw   my  youngest  son    coming 
toward  us.     I  reached  out,  caught  him,  and  by  dragging  him  out, 
and  my  wife  having  a  hold  of  him  under  the  water,  I  happened  to 
see  her  hair  floating  on  the  water,  and  I  caught  it  and    dragged 
her  out.    Once  more  we  were  all  together.    We  then  began  to  con- 
sider which  way  we  could  reach  the  hill.     At  last  the  ruins  gorged 
together,  and  we  climbed  from  one  thing  to  another  over  the  debris 
and  were  then  near  enough  the  hill  to  be  drawn  up  with  ropes." 


A  BABE'S  THRILLING  ESCAPE. 


71 


Abram  Mangus  lived  at  27  Main  Street.  Mrs.  Mangus,  his 
wife,  says  that  first,  the  long  porch  went.  Then  some  heavy  object 
struck  the  building  and  knocked  out  the  under  part  and  left  the 
attic  afloat.  Several  persons  got  into  the  attic  as  they  floated 
within  reach,  among  them  an  entirely  naked  babe.  None  of  them 
knew  where  this  child  came  from,  but  they  supposed  some  one  had 
thrown  it  in  while  being  carried  by,  in  order  to  save  it,  Mrs. 
Mangus  seeing  the  babe  was  cold  wrapped  it  in  a  skirt.  Three 
times  their  wrecked  building  floated  down  near  to  the  bridge  and 
the  burning  debris,  and  each  time  was  carried  back  by  the  react- 
ing current.  Finally  they  found  it  possible  to  get  into  Union 
Street  School-house,  by  climbing  over  the  masses  of  wreck.  In 
order  that  she  might  have  the  use  of  her  hands  in  climbing  into 
the  window  of  the  school-house,  Mrs.  Mangus  took  in  her  teeth 
the  muslin  which  wrapped  the  babe,  and  thus  carried  it  into  the 
place  of  safety.  Much  curiosity  was  excited  among  the  people 
gathered  there  about  the  babe.  One  woman  came  and  looked  at 
it  and  exclaimed,  "  That  is  my  baby."  And  so  it  actually  was. 
The  babe  after  its  perilous  ride  was  restored  to  its  mother. 

Miss  Annie  Fisher  lived  in  a  cottage.  It  had  no  attic,  but  the 
family  had  gone  into  the  second  story  for  safety  from  the  flood, 
which  was  high  in  the  first  story.  Her  family  consisted  of  her 
brother  Pierson,  Milton  and  his  wife,  Aunt  Susan  (Mrs.  Pershing), 
Bertie  Jones,  her  nephew,  and  a  servant  girl.  Milton  had  just 
returned  from  Philadelphia,  where  he  had  been  in  a  hospital  on 
account  of  serious  ill-health.  He  was  still  helpless  and  in  bed. 
Miss  Fisher  was  at  the  front  window  looking  out,  when  she  saw 
neighbors  across  the  way  on  the  roof  of  their  house  looking  ex- 
citedly at  something.  She  called  across  to  know  what  was  wrong. 
''  My  God,"  was  the  answer,  "  the  reservoir  is  broken,  and  we  are 
all  lost."  In  a  few  moments  she  saw  the  awful  mass  of  spray, 
looking  like  smoke,  and   the   black  wreck  coming,  and  could   not 


72  AN  INVALID  RESCUED. 

imaeine  what  it  was.  It  looked  like  the  smoke  of  a  fire,  and  she 
thoupfht  it  was  the  end  of  the  world.  She  turned  back  to  where 
the  family  were  so  frightened  that  they  asked  what  was  the  mat- 
ter. "  Oh,"  she  replied,  "  something  awful  has  happened  ;  I  fear 
that  the  end  of  the  world  has  come.  But  let  us  be  calm,  and  we 
will  all  die  togrether."  It  was  but  a  moment  until  the  house  seemed 
wrenched  from  the  foundation  with  such  a  cracking  and  grinding 
as  filled  them  all  with  inexpressible  horror.  Miss  Fisher  com- 
pares it  to  the  sensation  of  wrenching  out  a  tooth.  It  produced  an 
awful  sense  of  helplessness,  as  if  every  earthly  dependence  was 
gone.  "Aunt  Susan"  went  down  under  the  wave,  and  some  one 
said  she  was  drowning.  Miss  Fisher  caught  her  and  held  her  head 
out  of  water.  A  large  log  crushed  into  the  window,  and  following 
came  a  big  dog  which  leaped  upon  the  bed  and  lay  down  upon  the 
sick  brother.  The  bed  being  lifted  up  came  apart,  and  they  had 
to  place  him  upon  the  wardrobe  and  hold  him  on  while  it  was 
borne  up  nearly  to  the  ceiling.  As  soon  as  the  house  had  been 
lifted  up  from  its  foundation  it  began  moving  swiftly,  borne  along 
by  the  current.  It  passed  the  brick  residence  of  her  sister,  Mrs. 
Byron,  which  was  still  standing,  but  carried  them  on  until  it 
reached  South  Street,  in  the  Kernville  part  of  the  city.  Here  it 
was  arrested  in  its  course  near  a  higher  building,  which  had  an 
attic.  With  a  plank  they  punched  the  window  in,  and  after  con- 
siderable effort  got  the  invalid  brother  and  all  the  family  into  the 
attic.  Here  they  remained  until  the  waters  had  receded. 
Rev.  Dr.  Chapman  gives  me  the  following  incident : 
"  David  Valiance  was  an  aged  man  who  was  converted  at  our 
protracted  meeting  last  winter.  Of  all  our  165  converts  no  one 
was  more  faithful  than  he.  With  his  ag^ed  wife  he  was  to  be  seen 
at  every  prayer-meeting  and  at  his  class  regularly.  He  joined  the 
Young  People's  Society,  and  was  a  regular  attendant.  Religion 
seemed  to  be  the  source  of  his  highest  enjoyment  every  day.     He 


A  FAMILY  GONE.  73 

lived  with  his  wife  and  one  daughter  in  a  brick  house,  one  of  a  row 
of  six,  on  the  brink  of  the  Conemaugh  River.  Of  the  six  famihes 
occupying  this  row,  only  two  persons  escaped.  The  last  that  was 
seen  of  this  good  old  man  was  on  his  roof  by  some  one  going  by. 
He  was  on  his  knees  shouting,  '  Glory  to  God.*  The  rest  of  his 
story  must  be  learned  in  Heaven." 

Mr.  John  Fenn  lived  opposite  the  M.  E.  Church,  on  Locust 
Street.  No  man  in  the  city  loved  his  family  more,  and  none  had 
a  more  interesting  group  of  little  darlings  to  love.  The  cut  given 
on  page  75  presents  all  the  children  except  the  youngest. 

"  They  grew  in  beauty  side  by  side, 
They  filled  one  home  with  glee. 

"  The  same  fond  mother  bent  at  night 
O'er  each  fair  sleeping  brow  ; 
She  had  each  folded  flower  in  sight — 
Where  are  those  dreamers  now  ?" 

Ah,  their  present  home  is  not  uncertain.  They  and  their 
godly  father  entered  the  blissful  world  together.  In  life  they  were 
lovely ;  in  death  they  are  not  parted. 

Miss  Bertha  T.  Caldwell,  who  has  been  a  mission  teacher 
among  the  Mormons  in  Idaho  for  several  years,  had,  just  a  few 
days  before  the  flood,  returned  to  her  father's  house  in  this  city. 
The  abstract  that  follows  is  from  an  interesting  letter  written  by 
her:  "Our  house  is  high  from  the  foundation,  and  we  were  not 
very  much  afraid  that  the  water  would  reach  the  lower  story,  and 
yet  we  took  up  our  carpets  and  first  floor  furniture,  that  we  might 
be  on  the  safe  side.  My  sister  and  I  went  above  stairs  to  write, 
while  our  parents  remained  below  reading.  All  at  once  we  heard 
a  shrill  whistle.  I  called  to  papa  to  know  what  it  meant,  when  he 
replied  that  there  was   probably  fire   up  town,  in  the  direction  of 


74 


CRIES  FOR  HELP. 


Woodvale.  In  a  few  moments  I  heard  another  whistle,  and  then 
came  an  awful  roar  and  crash.  It  flashed  through  my  mind  in  a 
minute  that  the  South  Fork  Dam  had  broken.  I  screamed  the 
alarm  to  my  parents,  when  papa,  rushing  up-stairs,  cried  out, 
'We're  lost!     We're  lost !' 

"We  all  ran  to  the  third  story  and  saw,  a  block  away,  a  great 
perpendicular  wall  of  water,  seemingly  a  mountain  in  height,  with 
smoke,  dust  and  vapor  flying  in  every  direction,  and  on  its  surface 
houses,  engines,  people,  cars,  logs,  everything,  coming  right  to- 
ward us.  We  saw  brick  buildings,  three  stories  high,  knocked 
down  like  toy  houses.  I  heard  something  splash,  splash,  in  our 
lower  hall,  and  I  called,  '  Is  any  one  drowning?  Oh,  come  up  here.' 
We  expected  every  second  the  house  would  be  struck  and  broken 
to  pieces,  as  were  many  we  saw  around  us.  The  house  of  our 
next  door  neighbor  went  down,  and  the  poor  souls  drowned  before 
our  eyes.  The  children  screamed  and  stretched  out  their  arms 
to  us,  saying,  '  Oh,  help  us  ;  for  God's  sake,  help  us.'  Papa  called 
back,  '  God  help  you  ;  we,  too,  will  go  in  a  minute.' 

"The  crash  we  expected  did  not  come.  We  rushed  to  the  rear 
of  the  house,  up  to  our  waists  in  water.  My  father  put  his  arms 
around  us  and  said  we  would  all  die  together.  The  water  was 
running  into  our  second-story  windows,  sending  a  spray  many  feet 
high.  I  leaned  far  out  and  saw  a  roof-top  below,  and  believing 
that  we  would  be  lost  if  our  house  would  fall,  I  caught  hold  of 
mother  when  we  jumped  on  the  roof  below,  calling  upon  the 
others  to  follow.  We  walked  and  crawled  over  house-tops  and 
other  timbers  until  we  reached  Main  Street,  about  a  block  from 
our  home.  Here,  in  a  big  three-story  building,  we  found  many 
other  rescued  ones ;  and  the  town  clock  struck  five.  We  still 
heard  the  shrieks  of  drowning  people  and  their  cries  for  help. 
Now,  for  the  first  time,  I  realized  that  I  had  no  dress  on.  It  must 
have  been  torn  off  me.      I  stood  shivering  in  a  skirt,  wet  to  the 


Daisy.  John  F. 

Virginia. 


Bismarck. 


THE   FENN   CHILDREN— ALL   LOST    IN   THE    FLOOD. 
(Father  and  Baby  a'so  lost.) 


REV.  DR.  FINK'S  EXPERIENCE.  'J "J 

waist.  Some  of  our  number  had  scarcely  any  clothing,  and  some 
had  limbs  broken.  There  were  one  hundred  and  twenty  persons 
in  the  building ;  the  only  little  child  present  was  my  brother's 
babe.  There  we  sat  all  night  through,  each  hour  seeming  as  long 
as  a  day.  It  rained  incessantly,  and  the  cries  for  help  never 
ceased.  Our  family  clung  together  shivering  and  half  dead  from 
fright  and  exposure.  I  wondered  whether  my  work  in  Idaho  was 
finished,  regretting  that  I  had  not  done  more  when  I  had  the 
opportunity.  I  wondered  if  my  body  would  be  recognized  when 
found,  and  where  I  would  be  buried.  The  suspense  was  horrible. 
I  could  hear  men  pray  who  heretofore  had  spoken  God's  name 
only  in  an  oath.  The  women  bore  up  better  than  the  men. 
Morning  came  at  last,  and,  oh,  what  a  scene  presented  itself  to  our 
view !  My  grandmother,  two  aunts  and  three  cousins  were 
drowned.  Ours  is  a  sad  home.  We  are  so  thankful  that  our 
lives  have  been  spared  and  that  we  have  been  supplied  with 
necessary  clothing  from  the  Presbyterian  headquarters.  I  realize 
that  the  Blessed  Master  is  not  through  with  me  yet,  and  that  there 
remains  much  for  me  to  do." 

The  Rev.  R.  A.  Fink,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  Lutheran  Church, 
gives  me  this  account : — 

"  My  house  is  on  Somerset  Street,  on  the  south  side  of  Stony 
Creek,  opposite  Clinton  Street.  During  the  flood  I  was  standing 
at  the  front  second-story  window.  I  saw  the  wire-mill  rise  and 
the  wreck  come  sweeping  down  toward  us,  prostrating  everything 
in  its  course.  When  it  crossed  Stony  Creek  and  struck  my  house, 
I  saw  a  boy,  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age,  on  the  front  of  the 
wreck,  bareheaded,  and  his  face  bleeding.  When  he  observed  me 
inside  the  window,  he  recosfnized  me  and  exclaimed  :  '  Mr.  Fink, 
can  I  come  in  ?'  I  opened  the  window  and  took  him  in.  He  was 
a  son  of  Mr.  Updegrafffrom  Woodvale,  and  had  floated  two  miles, 
his  brother  being  drowned  on  the  way.     We  immediately  had  to 

5 


78  FRANTIC  HORSES. 

flee  to  the  third  story  of  my  house,  where  we  remained  all  the 
night  and  were  saved.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  stands 
the  large  brick  Church  of  the  Brethren.  Into  an  upper  window  of 
the  church  an  old  gentleman  made  his  way  from  the  wreck.  Dur- 
ing the  whole  night  he  wept  and  screamed  and  prayed,  calling 
over  to  me  to  pray  for  him,  exclaiming  that  all  his  family  were 
drowned.  In  the  morning  he  was  rescued  by  some  young  men 
who  went  to  his  aid. 

"Sitting  by  the  window  in  the  third  story,  by  the  light  of  the 
burning  steeple  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  the  light  of  the 
wreckage  at  the  stone  bridge,  listening  to  the  cries  and  screams  of 
the  old  man  in  the  church,  I  spent  a  long  and  memorable  night." 

Irwin  Rutlege,  Esq.,  who  resides  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Stony  Creek,  sends  me  the  following  account  of  his  experience: — 
"  On  the  afternoon  of  May  31st,  1889,  ^  was  alone  in  my  house  on 
Water  Street,  Fifth  Ward,  the  family  having  sought  different  points 
for  safety  from  the  water,  which  was  backed  up  on  our  city,  at  the 
dark  hour  of  4. 10  p.m.  Mrs.  Parker,  who  lived  opposite  me,  was 
screaming  at  the  top  of  her  voice.  I  went  to  the  door  to  ascertain 
the  cause  of  her  alarm,  when  she  said,  '  Rutlege,  for  God's  sake 
get  out  of  your  house;  the  reservoir  has  broken,  and  we  will  all  be 
drowned.'  I  jumped  out  in  some  six  feet  of  water  and  caught 
hold  of  the  iron  fence  of  my  neighbor,  which  was  under  water 
some  two  feet,  and  v/as  making  my  way  toward  the  Franklin 
Street  bridge — one  hand  down  in  the  water,  holding  by  that  fence — 
when  the  tidal  wave  cauo-ht  me,  and  I  was  ridino-  or  swimmine  on 
some  fifteen  feet  of  water.  At  this  stage,  a  team  of  mules  belonging 
to  P.  A.  Cobaugh,  hitched  to  a  wagon,  made  for  me  for  protection, 
as  the  poor  brutes  were  frightened  and  fighting  with  the  surging 
waves.  A  bay  horse,  without  a  rider,  came  also  and  crossed  the 
tongue  of  the  wagon  in  front  of  the  mules.  I  was  tangled  up  with 
tliem  and  passed  away  from  them  between  the  wagon  and  the 


SINGING  IN  THE  DEEP  WATERS.  79 

drowning  animals,  for  they  all  drowned  there  and  then  at  my  feet. 
At  this  point  the  waves  and  debris  from  the  stone  bridge  and 
Levergood  Street  met  and  lifted  the  bridge,  and  it  floated  up  Stony 
Creek  a  few  feet,  after  which  it  came  back  again  and  passed  out  of 
sight  down  the  river. 

"  My  son  was  in  the  upper  story  of  Torney  &  Co.'s  drug  store, 
and,  seeing  me,  jumped  out  of  the  upper  window  and  pulled  me 
to  safety  just  as  floating  houses  closed  in  upon  where  I  had  been. 
My  son  then  went  to  the  rescue  of  an  old  lady  from  one  of  the 
wrecked  trains.  She  was  a  Grecian.  He  assisted  and  carried  her 
to  where  we  were  then  lodged — on  the  top  of  Joseph  E.  Morgan's 
house,  where  for  nineteen  hours  about  twenty  of  us  remained,  all 
that  dreary,  cold  night  and  the  next  day  until  3  o'clock,  p.m., 
when  the  lamented  Mr.  Coffin  came  to  our  rescue  with  a  skiff 
From  Friday  morning  at  6  o'clock  until  Saturday  afternoon  at 
4^  o'clock,  I  ate  one  cracker.  The  old  lady  referred  to  above 
had  her  thigh  broken  or  dislocated  and  her  spine  injured.  She 
prayed  nearly  all  those  nineteen  long,  sad  hours.  My  limbs  were 
peeled  from  my  knees  to  my  ankles,  and  for  five  weeks  I  was 
under  the  physician's  care." 

Georofe  Moses  lived  in  a  beautiful  frame  house  on  the  South 
Side,  or  Kernville.  He  had  left  his  store  in  Johnstown  proper  to 
take  care  of  itself,  and  was  at  home  looking  after  the  safety  of  his 
family.  When  the  big  torrent  came  they  all  hurried  into  the 
garret.  There  it  was  quite  dark.  When  the  house  began  to  move, 
George  felt  an  irresistible  desire  to  look  out,  that  he  might  know 
where  they  were  going.  He  broke  a  hole  through  the  roof  so 
that  he  could  get  his  head  out.  He  found  that  his  house  was 
moving  toward  the  river.  Mrs.  Moses  was  one  of  the  sweetest 
singers  in  the  city.  She  now  commenced  to  sing  for  her  children 
and  for  her  own  comfort,  "Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul."  While  she 
sang  the  house  received  a  sudden  violent  shock,  and  then  stopped 


8o  AMID  THE  RUSHING  CURRENTS. 

moving.  The  top  end  of  a  large  tree  had  run  in  through  the  side 
of  the  house,  and,  by  means  of  the  weight  of  its  roots  and  heavy 
end,  had  anchored  the  house  riofht  on  the  brink  of  the  river.  Here 
they  remained  until  the  waters  had  subsided. 

Mr.  William  E.  White,  who  dictated  the  following,  lives  in  the 
Sixth  Ward,  near  the  Stony  Creek  : 

"  We  would  not  leave  our  house  in  the  morning,  and  after  din- 
ner could  not  get  away.  The  water  rushed  in  so  swiftly  at  4  o'clock 
that  by  the  time  we  got  the  gas  turned  off  and  looked  around  it 
was  almost  to  my  waist.  I  found  we  would  have  to  run  up-stairs  or 
be  swept  out,  as  the  water  had  burst  open  the  doors  and  was  rush- 
ing through  the  hall  carrying  everything  with  it.  I  cannot  describe 
the  agony  we  suffered  when  we  saw  everything  running  up  stream 
and  expecting  every  moment  to  be  taken  along.  Our  house  rose 
up,  but  fortunately  the  current  turned  in  time  to  keep  us  back. 
The  Unique  Rink  was  a  terrible  sight,  sailing  past  like  a  steamboat, 
which  upon  coming  back  was  only  prevented  from  floating  down 
Somerset  Street  by  striking  a  large  log  on  the  river  bank  when 
within  fifty  feet  of  our  house,  and  almost  opposite  us.  My  thoughts 
all  night  were,  Where  are  all  the  people  we  have  seen  clinging  to 
the  roofs  or  standing  on  boards,  both  going  up  stream  and  coming 
back  ?  When  we  grot  over  our  frigrht  a  little  and  looked  out  of  the 
back  attic  window,  we  found  we  were  completely  surrounded  by 
broken  buildings  and  rubbish  of  all  kinds.  On  the  top  of  a  house 
not  twenty  feet  away,  which  had  come  from  the  lower  end  of 
Morris  Street,  stood  a  young  man  with  a  light  shawl  around  his 
shoulders  and  his  hair  standing  straight  up  with  fright  ;  we  called 
out  who  was  he  and  where  had  he  come  from.  He  said  his  name 
was  Harry  Phillips,  and  he  had  come  from  Dr.  L.  T.  Beam's,  on 
Market  Street.  We  wanted  him  to  Xxy  to  get  out  of  the  rain  into 
our  house,  but  he  thought  he  was  safer  where  he  was  until  things 
had  settled.     Finally,  he  concluded  to  try  and  get  to  us,  which  he 


THE  FIRST  A  WFUL  NIGHT  8  I 

did  widi  hard  work.  Next  the  famihes  above  us  thought  our 
house  was  safer  than  theirs,  and  they  dimbed  over  the  debris  and 
got  into  our  windows,  so  that  we  would  be  company  for  each  other. 
Harry  PhilHps  told  us  how  Market  Street  and  the  lower  end  of 
town  had  fared,  and  from  our  house-top  we  could  see  that  Grandma 
Levergood's  house  was  gone,  and  also  that  papa's  house  was 
standing,  so  we  concluded  they  were  safe.  Harry  Phillips  said 
he  never  expected  to  see  his  mother  or  Dr.  Beam  alive.  He  also 
said  that  there  were  people  in  the  house  on  which  he  was  standing. 
He  called  over,  and  a  young  man  said  he  was  there  with  his  old 
father  and  mother,  that  his  father  was  dying,  having  taken  a  chill. 
We  asked  if  they  could  not  come  over,  and  how  they  were  fixed. 
He  said  the  tops  of  the  beds  were  dry,  and  they  would  stay  there. 
About  6  o'clock  he  called  to  us  that  his  father  was  dead.  And 
there  they  remained  all  night  alone.  Climbing  out  the  next  morn- 
ing they  were  compelled  to  leave  the  dead  body  of  the  father 
alone.  That  was  a  long  night  of  agony  and  suspense.  I  cannot 
say  it  was  dark,  for  the  glare  from  the  fire  at  the  stone  bridge  made 
it  liofht  enouorh  to  see  each  other's  faces.  Our  house  is  a  mile  from 
the  bridge,  but  happily  we  did  not  know  what  was  burning,  and 
supposed  it  was  the  natural  gas.  The  burning  of  the  Catholic 
Church  steeple  was  a  beautiful  yet  awful  sight — a  blazing  fire  in 
the  midst  of  water.  At  4  o'clock  on  the  next  morning  we  could 
see  people  moving  over  the  debris  trying  to  release  those  who 
were  in  danger.  About  8  o'clock  we  concluded  to  try  to  get 
to  the  hill,  and  were  more  than  one  hour  climbing  over  the  debris 
to  go  two  squares." 

Rev.  E.  W.  Trautwein,  pastor  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
in  Cambria  Borough,  writes  me :  "  Rose  Carroll,  of  Conemaugh 
Borough,  was  half  submerged  in  the  water  a  short  distance  above 
the  stone  bridge,  and  her  limbs  were  tightly  held  by  a  number 
of  heavy  timbers   that  were  jammed  around  her  body.      I  was 


82  A  NEIGHBOR'S  EXPERIENCE. 

told  that  directly  beneath  her  was  the  body  of  her  uncle,  or  some 
other  relative,  whose  hand,  the  muscles  of  which  were  set  in  death, 
held  her  heel  in  a  vise-like  grip.  I  have  not,  however,  been  able 
to  verify  this  by  asking  the  young  lady  herself, 

"She  was  the  coolest  person  I  saw  that  night  at  the  bridge, 
though  in  the  greatest  danger,  as  the  fire  was  gradually  creeping 
up  to  where  she  was  held,  I  several  times  thought  we  would  be 
compelled  to  get  an  axe  and  cut  off  the  one  foot  that  was  still 
held  rather  than  let  her  be  burnt  alive ;  but,  fortunately,  this  was 
not  necessary,  as  she  was  taken  out  after  several  hours'  hard  work 
before  the  fire  had  reached  her." 

The  following  letter  was  written  to  Mrs.  Beale  by  our  next-door 
neighbor,  Mrs.  Dr.  S,  C,  Poland,  One  of  her  children  had  been 
in  the  parsonage  until  the  water  had  become  two  and  a  half  feet 
deep  on  Lincoln  Street,  and  until  within  a  short  time  of  the  ap- 
proach of  the  great  torrent,  when,  having  expressed  a  wish  to 
return  home,  his  uncle  carried  him  there  on  his  shoulders  :  "  I  have 
thought  of  you  every  day  since  the  flood.  I  have  had  a  very 
serious  time  in  trying  to  recover  from  the  dreadful  bruises  which  I 
received  whilst  in  the  water.  And  now  I  am  so  thankful  that  I  can 
write  you  that  I  am  almost  myself  again.  I  was  taken  to  Philadel- 
phia for  the  treatment  of  my  eyes,  which  were  so  badly  injured 
that  all,  myself  included,  supposed  I  must  spend  the  remainder  of 
my  days  in  darkness.  Indeed,  I  suffered  such  intense  pain  in  my 
brain  that  it  was  thought  my  reason  would  be  dethroned.  Oh ! 
that  fearful  shock!  I  thought  I  could  not  survive  it,  and  I  sin- 
cerely desired  to  die  ;  but  it  was  not  the  will  of  God  to  take  me 
then.  My  dear  friend  and  kind  neighbor,  how  awful  was  that 
moment  when  the  dreadful  crash,  came ;  when,  as  we  stood  at  the 
second-story  window,  looking  toward  the  parsonage,  some  heav}^ 
timbers  wrecked  our  dwelling,  tearing  open  the  lime  and  plaster, 
which  fell  into  our  eyes !     The  Doctor  had  both  the  little  children  in 


BEREFT  OF  ALL.  83 

his  arms  when  the  house  collapsed.  We  knew  nothing  until  we 
had  been  floated  a  square  away.  When  we  came  to  our  senses 
we  were  in  more  than  thirty  feet  of  water,  and  the  Doctor  and  I 
were  both  fast  in  the  wreckage.  Our  darling  boys  were  both  in 
the  Doctor's  arms,  but  the  immortal  spark  had  fled.  The  Doctor 
said  he  felt  them  struo-o-lina-  in  his  arms  when  he  was  under  the 
water,  but  he  could  do  nothing  for  them.  Oh  !  if  only  dear  Walter 
could  have  stayed  at  the  parsonage,  he  might  have  been  spared. 
The  Doctor  had  two  ribs  broken,  and  I  was  so  crippled  up  and 
black  and  blue  with  bruises,  that  my  sister  and  brother  did  not 
know  me  when  they  first  saw  me.  We  have  not  secured  one  thing 
from  our  ruined  house  to  remind  us  of  home.  Oh !  if  I  only  had 
some  toy  or  book  that  belonged  to  my  dear  drowned  children.  I 
miss  my  darling  babies  more  and  more,  and  although  I  know  they 
are  better  ofl^  and  saved  from  sin,  still  that  does  not  fill  up  the 
vacancy  in  my  heart.  Oh !  it  is  dreadful  to  be  robbed  at  once  of 
home  and  of  children  ;  but  I  am  trying  to  submit,  as  a  Christian 
woman  ought.  It  was  a  miracle  from  God  that  the  Doctor  and 
myself  and  your  dear  family  were  spared ;  and  I  do  thank  our 
Heavenly  Father  that  my  eyesight  has  been  restored,  and  that 
my  mind  has  become  more  composed.  We  expect  to  locate  in 
Philadelphia,  where  we  shall  make  a  new  start  in  the  world." 

Charles  Boyle  and  wife,  with  their  seven  children,  lived  in  an 
exposed  part  of  Cambria  Borough,  or  city,  as  it  is  sometimes 
called.  Mr.  Boyle,  like  everybody  else,  was  surprised  by  the 
avalanche  of  water.  With  his  family  he  rushed  above  stairs. 
When  the  water  became  waist-deep,  he  held  two  of  the  smallest 
children  on  his  shoulders,  until  finally,  the  water  rising  still  higher, 
they  and  he  were  drowned.  The  house  was  suddenly  torn  to 
pieces,  destroying  the  other  members  of  the  family,  save  Mrs. 
Boyle  and  one  son.  Mrs.  Boyle  clung  to  a  piece  of  timber,  upon 
which  she  was  rushed  down  the  river  nine  miles  to  Nineveh,  where 


84  A  SCIENTIFIC  VIEW  OF  THE  FLOOD. 

her  hair  becominor  entansfled  in  the  branches  of  a  floatine  tree, 
which  moved  toward  the  shore,  she  was  rescued. 

"  Oft  doomed  to  death. 
Though  fated  not  to  die." 

She  told  Dr.  C.  Sheridan,  her  physician,  that  again  and  again 
in  her  awful  ride  she  was  under  water,  and  that  she  once  resolved 
to  let  go  her  hold,  permitting  herself  to  be  drowned  ;  but  just  then 
thoughts  of  her  living  boy  Hugh,  who  was  at  college  in  prepara- 
tion for  the  priesthood,  stimulated  her  for  further.struggle. 

Many  other  experiences  have  been  narrated  to  me  by  fellow- 
citizens,  which  are  almost  as  thrilling  as  any  already  given,  but 
which,  for  want  of  space,  must  be  excluded,  except  such  as  it  may 
be  possible  to  insert  in  Part  VI. 

4. THE  DISASTER  SCIENTIFICALLY  VIEWED. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Engineering  News  of  New  York 
I  am  permitted  to  insert  the  following  extracts  from  its  columns. 
The  proprietors  sent  a  corps  of  reporters,  consisting  of  expert 
constructing  and  topographical  engineers,  who  made  exhaustive 
examinations,  took  photographic  views  and  prepared  accurate  maps. 
Its  resultant  articles  in  four  of  its  issues  were  by  far  the  most 
complete  and  satisfactory  account  of  the  nature  and  causes  of  the 
disaster,  as  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  engineering  science. 

The  construction  of  the  dam,  which  in  its  later  reconstructed 
form  has  just  failed,  was  first  authorized  in  1836,  but  it  was  not 
till  1839  that  $70,000  was  appropriated  for  it,  and  Wm.  E.  Morris, 
Principal  Assistant  Engineer,  and  an  able  and  experienced  man, 
was  placed  in  charge  of  it,  and  also  of  the  dam  near  Hollidays- 
burg,  on  the  east  side  of  the  mountains.  The  west  dam,  which 
has  now  failed,  raised  the  water  62  feet,  was  850  feet  long  on  top, 
covered   400  acres  of  ground,   and   stored   up  480,000,000  cubic 


TOPOGRAPHY  OF  SOUTH  FORK. 


85 


feet  of  water,  the  estimated  cost  being  ^188,000,  one  year  being 
required  for  construction.  The  engineer,  Mr.  Morris,  in  his  re- 
port, dated  Johnstown,  November  ist,  1839,  said  : 

"The  western  division  of  the  Pennsylvania  Canal  is  supplied 
by  water  taken  by  feeders  from  the  Little  Conemaugh  River  and 
Stony  Creek,  which  form  a  junction  at  this  place.  The  valley  of 
Stony  Creek  is  not  well  suited  for  a  reservoir,  as  it  has  a  steep 
descent,  and  in  time  of  floods  the  stream  is  far  too  large  and  un- 
manaoeable. 

"The  main  branch  of  the  Conemaugh  has  but  one  reservoir 
site  on  it,  and  that  would  flood  the  village  of  Jefferson  and  the 
railroad.  Of  the  other  branches,  the  south  (the  one  adopted)  is 
the  only  one  that  drains  sufficient  country  to  furnish  a  certain  ^yi^^- 
ply.  This  branch,  when  gauged  in  September,  after  one  day's 
rain,  discharged  in  24  hours  60,000,000  cubic  feet  of  water.  At 
the  same  time  there  were  flood  marks  two  feet  higher,  and  a 
moderate  estimate  of  full  discharge  in  24  hours  is  160,000,000 
cubic  feet.  The  best  site  for  a  dam  is  two  and  a  quarter  miles 
from  the  mouth.  A  dam  62  feet  high  and  850  feet  long  on  the 
top  is  suggested. 

"  The  valley  is  narrow  at  the  dam  and  widens  immediately 
above  into  an  extensive  basin.  There  is  solid  rock  at  both  ends 
of  the  dam  in  which  channels  may  be  cut  for  flood  water  dis- 
charge. Drifts  and  shafts  were  sunk  to  insure  in  advance  good 
foundations. 

"Two  plans  for  the  dam  were  presented  :  (i)  a  crib  dam  of 
timber  and  stone  with  weir  on  top  to  pass  over  freshet  water ; 
and  (2)  a  mound  of  stone  and  earth,  made  perfectly  water  tight, 
raised  10  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  pool,  having  a  waste  weir 
in  solid  rock  at  one  or  both  ends  of  dam  !  " 

Mr.  Morris,  however,  pointed  out  that  there  were  serious 
objections  to  the  first  plan,  especially  difficulty  in  uniting  the  body 


86 


STRUCTURE  OF  THE  DAM. 


of  the  dam  with  the  embankment  to  prevent  breakage  under  the 
pressure;  danger  of  undermining  base  ;  perishable  nature  of  ma- 
terial ;  constant  repairs,  etc.,  and  concluded  that  the  second  plan 
promised  a  permanent  and  durable  dam,  maintainable  at  small 
expense.  He  then  presented  estimates  of  quantities  of  mate- 
rial and  labor  needed,  showing  a  total  cost  of  ^188,000. 

In  the  annual  report  of  the  Canal  Commissioners  ending 
November  30th,  1852,  it  is  stated 

"  The  zvestern  reservoir  will  be  entirely  finished  in  a  very  short 
time.  ...  It  has  been  constructed  in  a  most  substantial  man- 
ner, reflecting  great  credit  on  the  contractors  and  engineers  in 
charge.  The  sluice  gates  were  closed  in  June,  1852  ;  by  August 
the  water  was  40  feet  deep." 

There  had  been  some  intermediate  delay  due  to  legal  pro- 
ceedings ;  but  the  dam  appears,  from  the  reports,  to  have  been 
executed  precisely  according  to  the  original  plans,  which,  from  the 
quantities  and  some  incidental  notes,  appear  to  have  been  for  a 
structure  closely  resembling  the  accompanying  sketch  : 


Slate  and     ||; 
Sy    Stone  Filling    /| 


ORIGINAL 


Approximate  Sketch  of  the  Section  of  the  Original  Dam  on  South  Fork. — Constructed  from  the  description  and 
quantities  of  material  used,  and  believed  to  be  substantially  correct. 


After  the  abandonment  of  the  State  canal,  soon  after  its  pur- 
chase by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  in  1857,  ^  breach  developed 
in  this  dam  that  involved  no  serious  disaster.     The  gap  was  about 


PRIMARY  CAUSE  OF  THE  BREAK.  8/ 

1 5G  feet  across  at  the  top  and  extended  down  nearly  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  dam,  yet  still  leaving  enough  of  the  old  dam  intact  to 
retain  a  small  remnant  of  the  original  reservoir.  This  gap  is 
stated  to  have  been  closed  and  the  damage  repaired  in  1879-81, 
at  a  total  cost  of  ^17,000,  a  sum  hardly  adequate  to  properly  re- 
pair even  a  much  smaller  gap,  not  to  speak  of  raising  the  original 
level ;  which  latter  would  not  only  have  been  a  rash  and  dangerous 
procedure,  without  reconstructing  the  dam  complete,  but  would 
have  involved  a  heavy  expenditure  of  money,  however  rashly 
done. 

The  engineer  in  charge  of  the  reconstruction  was  General 
James  N.  Morehead.  The  primary  cause  of  failure  lay  in  no 
part  of  the  work  which  he  reconstructed,  but  in  lack  of  sufficient 
spill-way.  The  considerable  leakage  reported  from  the  dam,  how- 
ever, would  indicate  that  the  reconstruction  was  none  too  secure, 
as  would  also  its  low  cost,  and  it  may  well  be  that  its  lack  of  the 
substantial  solidity  of  the  old  structure  aggravated  the  disaster  by 
aiding  the  dam  to  go  out  all  at  once  instead  of  gradually. 

If  anything  can  be  said  to  be  clear  about  this  catastrophe,  it 
is  that  the  dam — poor  structure  as  we  must  now  believe  that  it 
was — failed  just  when  and  as  it  did  merely  for  lack  of  ^  little  more 
sectional  area  in  the  spill-way.  For  nearly  half  a  century  this 
spill- way  has  sufficed  ;  it  may  have  been  at  times  severely  tried, 
but  it  has  never  before  caused  water  to  actually  run  over  the  top 
of  the  dam,  and  it  probably  would  not  have  done  so  on  this  occa- 
sion had  there  been  slightly  more  provision  for  normal  discharge ; 
because  the  area  of  the  impounded  water  was  not  very  large,  not 
over  450  acres  at  most,  to  judge  by  the  old  reports,  and  the  water 
took  many  hours  to  rise  to  the  crest  level. 

The  orieinal  estimates  were  for  half  earth  and  half  rock  and 
slate  spoil.  We  can  readily  understand  how  this  could  be,  and 
yet  the  dam  be  made  practically  all  of  earth.     A  rotten,  slaty  shale 


88  IMMEDIATE  CAUSE. 

rock  lies  close  beneath  the  surface,  which  for  a  foot  or  two  disin- 
tegrates into  earth  almost  completely  after  excavation.  It  was 
probably  contemplated  to  excavate  half  the  material  from  this  soft 
rock,  and  a  good  deal  was  so  excavated,  but  the  large  borrow  pits 
on  each  side  at  the  bottom  of  the  reservoir  indicate  that  a  good 
deal  of  material  was  taken  from  lower  down  on  the  valley  slopes, 
where  there  was  more  earth  and  perhaps  a  rottener  rock.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  there  was  hardly  a  piece  of  rock  as  big  as  a  man's  fist 
in  any  of  the  central  part  now  exposed  to  view.  The  lower  edge 
of  the  northeast  side  of  the  gap  showed  an  interior  coating  of 
spalls  ;  but  while  these  may  be  the  outer  evidences  of  a  similar 
lining  extending  along  the  old  work,  inside  the  heavy  riprap,  it  is 
more  likely  that  it  is  a  mere  exterior  coating  of  a  few  stones, which 
chanced  to  lodgre  there  in  the  washout  or  fall  from  above.  There 
is  no  similar  evidence  of  interior  stone  in  the  southwest  end. 

The  excessive  phenomenal  rainfall,  the  second  contributmg 
cause  of  the  disaster,  began  Thursday  night.  May  30th,  after 
several  days  of  moderate  prior  rains,  and  continued  almost  till  the 
dam  gave  way.  The  lake,  although  discharging  its  best  through  the 
contracted  spill-way,  gradually  rose  at  the  rate  of  a  foot  an  hour 
for  several  hours  before  the  break,  implying  that  the  crest  of  the 
dam  was  7  feet  or  so  above  the  normal  level,  as  the  old  records 
indicate,  until,  at  2.30  p.m.,  of  Friday,  May  31st,  water  began  to 
run  over  the  crest. 

The  dreaded  catastrophy  was  then  certain,  and  could  not  be 
long  delayed,  no  earth  dam  being  capable  of  sustaining  such  a 
discharge  over  it.  It  took  half  an  hour  for  the  increasing  current 
to  gradually  cut  away  the  earth  support  from  the  lower  side  of 
the  rubble  heart  wall,  and  then,  at  3  p.m.,  the  dam  gave  way. 
The  breach  once  made  was  instantly  enlarged  to  nearly  its  final 
dimensions,  250  feet  across.  In  fact,  some  of  the  eye-witnesses 
state   that  it   "burst  with  a  report  like  thunder,"  which  it  is  quite 


DOUBTS  ABOUT  THE  DAM.  89 

possible  would  have  been  the  effect,  even  if  the  real  course  of 
events  was  gradual  but  very  rapid  disintegration  of  the  embank- 
ment in  the  torrent. 

The  foregoing  account  corresponds  most  correctly  with  that 
given  by  intelligent  eye-witnesses  of  the  break.  A  workman,  who 
seems  to  have  some  grudge  against  the  fishing  company,  absurdly 
declares  that  the  dam  had  been  leaking  badly  for  weeks,  and  that 
on  the  morning  before  the  disaster  "jets  squirted  out  for  thirty 
feet  from  the  face  of  it,"  and  that  these  leaks  rapidly  increased 
until  the  whole  gave  way,  without  any  running  of  water  over  the 
top.  This  is  so  far  consistent  with  other  facts  that  the  dam  is 
known  to  have  been  leaking  for  several  years  past,  and  has  been 
the  subject  of  considerable  apprehension,  especially  since  the 
spring  floods  of  1888. 

The  very  remarkable  fact  that  the  dam  is  stoutly  claimed  by 
the  company  officers  themselves  to  have  been  "inspected  twice  a 
month,"  by  some  engineers  as  yet  unknown,  tends  to  show  that  it 
was  in  a  dubious  condition,  for  a  dam  in  good  condition  has 
no  need  of  such  frequent  inspection  ;  and  it  is  also  specifically 
reported  that  the  dam  was  inspected  by  Robert  L.  Halliday, 
Superintendent  of  the  Lewiston  and  Sunbury  Division  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  "some  years  ago,"  and  declared  unsafe. 
But  on  the  whole,  the  evidence  is  decided  that  it  was  the  flow  of 
water  over  the  top  of  the  dam,  and  not  in  any  sense  inability  of 
the  dam  to  sustain  the  static  pressure  of  water,  which  caused  the 
disaster. 

The  dam  stands  about  450  feet  above  the  town  of  Johnstown, 
the  valley  connecting  it  being  about  twelve  miles  long,  counting  all 
the  bends  of  the  channel,  or  about  ten  miles  long  by  the  railway. 
In  the  valley  were  situated  the  following  places,  to  which  we  add 
also  the  census  populations  of  1880  and  the  estimated  populations 
of  1889. 


90 


TRACK  OF  THE  FLOOD. 


Town  or  Village. 


South  Fork, 

Mineral  Point, « 

Conemaugh, 

Woodvale, 

Conemaugh  Borough,      .     .     . 

Johnstown, 

Cambria, 

Intermediate  country  population 

Total  to  Penn.  Railroad  bridge. 


Distance  from  Dam  by 

POPUL^ 

Valley. 

i88o. 

2  miles 

893* 

5       " 

437* 

lO        " 

1,372* 

II       " 

6n^ 

12         " 

3498) 

12%    " 

8,380  y 

14       " 

2,223  j 

957* 

18,397 

Est'd  iS 


2,000 
800 

2,500 
2,000 

30,000 

400 

37,700 


It  appears  alogether  probable  that  the  population  on  the  day 
of  the  disaster  was  fully  37,000,  including  Cambria  City,  which 
was  below  the  fine  stone  bridge,  which  withstood  the  flood,  and 
was  speedily  so  choked  by  drift  and  human  bodies  as  to  form  a 
second  dam  to  drown  out  Johnstown, 

The  fates  which  have  befallen  the  above  towns  may  be  thus 
briefly  summarized,  according  to  the  best  information  now  at 
hand  : 

South  Foj'k — No  very  serious  results  ;  a  few  drowned. 

Mineral  Point — "Entirely  wiped  out," 

Conemaugh — "Almost  depopulated,"  and  every  building  swept 
away. 

Woodvale — The  same. 

Conemaugh  Borough — The  same,  with  more  escapes  to  the  hill, 

yohnstown,  Cambria — The  average  opinion  of  a  number  of 
leading  citizens  is  that  10  per  cent,  of  the  population  is  lost. 

It  is  generally  estimated  that  one-third  of  the  bodies,  at  least, 
will  never  be  recovered  at  all,  being  burned  up,  buried  under  sand 
and  detritus,  or  carried  down  the  river.  We  do  not  see  how  it 
can  ever  be  expected  to  determine  the  loss  much  more  accurately 


*  These  are  township  populations. 


HOW  THE  FLOOD  PROGRESSED.  9 1 

than  by  the  rude  process  we  have  just  used,  unless  it  may  be  by 
a  census  of  the  remaining  population  combined  with  an  estimate 
based  on  the  vote  of  the  last  Presidential  election. 

That  the  chances  for  life  of  any  one  in  the  way  of  the  flood 
after  the  dam  had  once  given  way  were  very  small,  is  evident 
when  we  remember  that,  as  in  all  such  cases,  the  flood  advances, 
not  with  a  comparatively  shallow  advance  guard,  but  with  a  solid 
wall  in  front,  which  strikes  a  house  or  human  being  with  terrible 
velocity,  and  directly  downward  rather  than  from  the  side.  All 
accounts  agree  that  the  water  did  in  fact  advance  "  like  a  wall  30  or 
40  feet  high,"  and  it  is  wholly  in  accordance  with  physical  laws  that 
it  should  do  so — in  fact,  it  cannot  well  do  otherwise.  The  water 
which  first  flows  out,  being  retarded  by  the  rough  surface,  trees, 
rocks,  houses,  animals  and  other  obstacles,  speedily  loses  its  own 
velocity,  but  furnishes  an  almost  frictlonless  surface  over  which 
odier  water  can  slide,  like  ice  down  a  plank,  with  almost  the  full 
theoretical  velocity  due  to  the  fall.  Thus  the  top  of  the  flood  is 
continually  moving  much  faster  than  the  bottom,  and  falls  over  the 
end  of  it  when  it  reaches  it,  to  be  itself  retarded  and  to  surrender 
a  large  part  of  the  energy  due  to  its  velocity  in  tearing  up  the 
ground  and  beating  down,  not  driving  forward,  any  unfortunate 
creature  or  structure  which  stands  in  its  path.  The  bottom  of 
the  flood  is  relatively  stationary,  the  top  has  its  full  theoretical 
velocity  due  to  the  fall,  and  the  average  velocity  of  advance  hence 
becomes  but  slightly  more  than  half  the  top  velocity ;  the  water, 
in  fact,  rolling  over  itself  at  the  front  very  much  as  a  wheel  rolls, 
except  that  the  lower  part  of  the  flood-wheel  never  rises  again 
when  it  once  strikes  the  ground.  The  fall  from  the  reservoir  to 
Johnstown  having  been  about  450  feet,  the  actual  time  taken  by 
the  flood  to  reach  Johnstown  corresponds  very  closely  with  that 
which  this  theory  requires.  The  top  of  the  water  would  have  nearly 
the  theoretical  velocity  due  to  a  fall  of  450  feet,  which  is  about  100 


92 


POWER  OF  THE  FLOOD. 


miles  per  hour,  that  due  to  the  i6o  feet  fall  of  Niagara  Falls  being 
about  70  miles  per  hour.  Allowing  for  all  the  frictional  losses,  a 
man  who  sustained  the  direct  impact  of  this  torrent  had  about  the 
same  chance  of  resisting  it  and  escaping  alive  as  he  would  in  sus- 
taining the  impact  of  Niagara  Falls  itself.  The  tendency  which 
such  a  flood  would  have  to  bury  many  bodies  is  also  evident. 

The  reservoir,  at  its  normal  water-level,  held  480,000,000 
cubic  feet  of  water,  but  at  the  break  it  contained  nearly  640,000,000 
cubic  feet,  or  say  20,000,000  net  tons.  How  vast  a  body  of  water 
this  is  will  be  better  appreciated  by  comparing  it  with  Niagara  Falls. 
The  discharge  over  the  falls  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  18,000,000 
cubic  feet  per  minute.  It  would  therefore  take  nearly  thirty-six 
minutes  for  Niagara  Falls  to  discharge  an  equal  body  of  water. 
The  reservoir  was  emptied,  all  but  the  last  harmless  drippings,  in 
just  about  that  time,  so  that  during  its  continuance  a  body  of 
water  substantially  equal  to  the  vast  flood  of  Niagara  Falls  was 
pouring  through  the  429  feet  gap  in  the  dam. 

Had  this  body  of  water  struck  Johnstown,  there  would  have 
been  even  less  of  the  city  left  than  there  is,  but  this  did  not  occur. 
The  whole  valley  above  it  had  likewise  to  be  filled  with  water. 
This  valley  is  somewhat  irregular  in  width,  varying  from  300  to 
2,500  feet;  but  independent  and  closely  agreeing  estimates  place 
its  average  width  at  750  feet  for  a  depth  of  20  feet,  giving  a  cross 
section  of  1 5,000  square  feet.  The  distance  from  the  dam  to  the 
Johnstown  bridge  is  by  the  river  channel  18  miles.  The  railway 
is  about  two  miles  shorter,  owing  to  cutting  across  bends.  It 
would  therefore  require  a  total  volume  of  about  14x5,280x15,000 
=  1,108,800,000  cubic  feet  to  fill  the  whole  valley  20  feet  deep,  or 
about  60  per  cent,  more  than  the  reservoir  contained.  As  nearly 
as  we  can  ascertain,  it  took  the  flood  fifteen  minutes  to  cover  the 
1 2  miles  between  South  Fork  Station  and  Johnstown,  or  say  twenty 
minutes  from  the  break  until  the  jam  at  the  Johnstown   bridge 


FREDDIE   POLAND. 
(Drowned,  with  his  brother,  in  his  father's  arms.) 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  FACTS. 


95 


occurred.  At  the  latter  moment,  therefore,  the  channel  could  not 
possibly  have  been  20  feet  deep  throughout,  although  it  was  prob- 
ably deeper  than  that  at  the  lower  end. 

The  total  energy  communicated  to  the  water,  which  had  to 
expend  itself  in  some  way  before  the  water  could  come  to  rest,  and 
which  was  in  fact  nearly  all  expended  between  the  dam  and  Johns- 
town bridge,  was  the  inconceivably  vast  aggregate  represented  by 
20,000,000  tons  falling  400  feet. 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  as  reached  by  the  expert 
examination  of  the  Engineeidng  News,  is  thus  summed  up : 

"The  original  dam  was  designed  and  built,  as  already  stated, 
by  the  late  Wm.  E.  Morris,  Principal  Assistant  Engineer  Pennsyl- 
vania State  Canals,  in  charge  of  the  Western  Division.  He  was 
an  able  and  experienced  engineer,  and  the  dam,  under  his  super- 
vision, was  thoroughly  well  built  by  the  late  General  James  N. 
Morehead.  It  had  no  central  core  of  masonry  as  the  preliminary 
estimates  indicated,  but  it  was  built  in  horizontal  layers,  thoroughly 
watered  and  rammed,  riprapped  on  both  slopes,  and  provided 
with  an  ample  spill-way  through  rock,  and  an  arch  culvert  under- 
neath it,  through  which  ran  five  two-feet  cast-iron  pipes  for  dis- 
charging the  water  during  the  dry  season  into  the  South  Fork, 
from  which  the  water  ran  down  in  the  river  channel  to  feed  the 
State  canal  at  Johnstown,  1 4  miles  below  by  the  river,  which  was 
the  head  of  canal  navigation.  The  canal,  and  the  dam  with  it, 
were  abandoned  as  public  structures  in  1 857-1 858. 

"The  first  break  in  it,  which  occurred  in  July,  1862,  was 
caused  by  a  defect  in  the  foundations  of  the  culvert,  through 
which  the  five  two-feet  discharge  pipes  were  carried.  This  break 
did  comparatively  little  damage,  the  reservoir  having  been  only 
half  full,  and  the  discharge  having  been  quite  slow,  wholly  from 
the  bottom,  and  choked  from  time  to  time  by  fall  of  material  from 
above.  So  far  as  we  can  determine,  it  carried  out  only  about 
6 


95  THE  SOUTH  FORK  CLUB. 

half  as  much  material  from  the  dam  as  the  last  break,  or  about 
50,000  cubic  yards.  There  is  great  difficulty  in  determining 
with  exactness  the  quantity  of  material  carried  out  in  the  first 
break.  Most  of  those  who  ought  to  know  say,  '  1 50  to  200  feet 
wide  on  top,'  but  then  most  of  the  accounts  of  the  last  break 
have  called  the  gap  only  200  feet,  whereas  it  is  actually  more  than 
twice  that.  No  photographs  taken  after  the  first  break  are  dis- 
coverable, but  it  is  probable  that  the  gap  was  smaller  than  the 
present  one,  especially  on  the  upper  side,  where  the  remarkable 
benches  of  old  work,  still  remaining  after  two  break-aways,  testify 
to  the  care  and  thoroughness  with  which  the  original  embankment 
was  constructed,  and  rammed  in  regular  layers. 

"  At  the  bottom  of  the  old  break,  also,  enough  of  the  material 
remained  to  make  a  little  pond  about  8  feet  deep  above  the  dam, 
which  remained  in  this  condition,  unused,  until,  in  May,  1875,  the 
property,  consisting  of  something  over  500  acres,  was  sold  to 
Congressman  John  Reilly.  The  lake  itself  was  about  400  acres  in 
size,  not  700,  as  has  been  reported.  After  holding  the  property 
unused  till  1879,  ^^'  ReiHy  offered  it  for  the  sum  of  ^2,000  to  the 
late  Colonel  B.  F.  Ruff,  an  old  and  successful  railroad  and  tunnel 
contractor,  and  the  originator  of  the  South  Fork  Fishing  and 
Huntinof  Club.  Colonel  Ruff  interested  two  other  Pittsburgh 
gentlemen  in  the  project,  and  stated  to  them  that  the  dam  could 
be  reconstructed  for  a  sum  not  to  exceed  ^1,500,  and  that  'he 
would  take  a  contract  to  do  it  for  ^1,700.' 

"On  this  basis  the  club  was  organized,  and  for  some  time 
these  three  gentlemen  were  its  only  members.  Not  one  of  them 
is  now  connected  with  it.  Colonel  Ruff's  idea  had  been  to  recon- 
struct the  dam  much  lower,  only  40  feet  high;  but  it  soon  appeared 
that  to  cut  down  the  rock  spill-way  would  cost  more  than  to  recon- 
struct the  dam  to  its  original  height,  and  by  the  time  this  had  been 
done  the  total  expenditure,  as  shown  by  the  pay  rolls,  had  been 


REBUILDING  THE  DAM.  97 

slightly  over  ^10,000,  or  about  twenty  cents  per  cubic  yard. 
There  still  remained  to  be  done  the  riprapping  of  the  slopes  and 
other  miscellaneous  work,  as  to  which  our  information  is  less 
precise,  being  only  that  it  '  may '  have  cost  ^7,000,  but  not  more, 
bringing  the  total  cost  up  to  the  very  small  figures  of  ^17,000, 
which  have  been  given  on  other  authority  in  newspaper  dis- 
patches. This  work  was  all  done  in  the  summer  of  1880.  The 
original  dam  was  estimated  to  cost  ^188,000,  and  actually  cost 
nearly  ^240,000. 

"  Colonel  Ruff  engaged  as  foreman  and  superintendent  for 
this  work  a  Mr.  Edward  Pearson,  of  Pittsburgh.  It  is  a  general 
impression  in  the  vicinity  of  Johnstown  and  Pittsburgh,  among 
those  who  know  anything  about  it,  that  Mr.  Pearson  was  the 
'engineer'  of  the  repairs,  but  this  is  incorrect.  He  is  not  and 
never  has  been  an  engineer,  but  after  1880  was  employed  in  the 
local  freight  department  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  at  Pittsburgh, 
until  he  formed  his  present  connection,  which  is  with  the  firm  of 
Haney  &  Co.,  general  teamsters  for  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
freight  department.  We  were  also  told  that  Colonel  Ruff  was  'the 
engfineer,'  but  this  statement  also  is  incorrect.  So  far  as  we  can 
ascertain  by  diligent  inquiry,  he  not  only  was  never  an  en- 
gineer, but  he  had  never  been  engaged,  before  this  time,  even 
as  a  contractor  on  water-works  or  dam  construction.  If  he  was 
ever  so  employed  at  all,  it  would  appear  that  it  must  have  been 
to  an  unimportant  extent.  In  fact,  our  information  is  positive, 
direct  and  unimpeachable  that  at  no  time  during  the  process  of 
rebuilding  the  dam  was  any  engineer  whatever,  young  or  old, 
good  or  bad,  known  or  unknown,  engaged  on  or  consulted  as  to 
the  work.  The  precautions  taken  against  failure  were  only  such 
as  an  experienced  railroad  contractor's  knowledge  of  hydraulic 
engineering  indicated  were  admissible  without  further  increasing 
a  contemplated  investment  of  ^3,700,  which  had  to  be  increased 
at  best  by  over  ^10,000. 


98  POOR  WORKMANSHIP. 

"Information  gathered  for  us  by  Mr.  T.  S.  Miller,  M.  E.,  of 
the  Lidgerwood  Manufacturing  Co.,  who  assisted  in  our  surveys, 
corresponds  with  that  gathered  by  us  from  other  reliable  sources, 
that  the  work  of  reconstruction  was  done  with  the  slio^ht  care 
which  the  preceding  facts  make  probable.  The  old  material, 
which  had  caved  in,  and  so  lost  its  compactness,  was  left  un- 
touched ;  the  top  of  the  dam  was  worked  down  on  to  it ;  the  old 
pipes  and  culvert,  which  still  remained  in  somewhat  injured  con- 
dition, were  covered  over  with  earth  and  permanently  closed,  a 
double  row  of  hemlock  plank  sheet  piling  being  driven  across  the 
old  channel.  The  water  during  reconstruction  was  carried  across 
the  dam  in  a  board  Aume,  which  was  raised  from  time  to  time  as 
the  work  progressed.  There  was  no  careful  ramming  in  watered 
layers,  as  in  the  first  dam,  although  some  say  there  was  some 
ramming.  There  was  much  leaking  during  the  process,  and  some 
tons  of  hay  and  straw  were  filled  in.  The  dam  was  finally  made 
fairly  tight,  but  there  has  always  been  some  leakage  at  the  bottom, 
and  of  late  years  this  has  been  increasing.  The  truth  as  to  the 
exact  amount  of  leakage  is  very  difficult  to  ascertain.  The  orig- 
inal crest  heiorht  of  the  dam  was  decreased  from  one  to  three  feet, 
and  the  spill-way  was  shortly  after  obstructed  with  gratings  to 
retain  fish,  and  a  trestle  bridge  was  built  across  the  opening. 

"Negligence  in  the  mere  execution  of  the  earthwork,  however, 
if  it  existed,  is  of  minor  importance,  since  there  is  no  doubt  that  it 
was  not  a  primary  cause  of  the  disaster  ;  at  worst,  it  merely  aggra- 
vated it.  The  primary  causes  of  the  disaster  were  the  lowering 
of  the  crest,  the  dishing,  or  central  sag  in  the  crest,  the  closing  of 
the  bottom  culvert,  and  the  obstruction  of  the  spill-way. 

"  Of  the  the  final  blow  as  it  struck  Johnstown,  this  may  be  said : 

"  The  main  body  of  the  flood  rushed  directly  westward,  through 
the  very  heart  of  Johnstown,  sweeping  it  clean,  and  impinging 
directly  against  the  mountain-side.      The  bridge,  whose  '  resist- 


WHA  T  STR  UCK  JOHNSTO  WN.  99 

ance  of  the  torrent'  has  been  the  matter  of  so  much  talk,  was  a 
noble  four-track  structure,  just  completed,  fifty  feet  wide  on  top, 
thirty-two  feet  high  above  the  water  line,  consisting  of  seven  skew 
spans  of  fifty-eight  feet  each.  It  still  remains  wholly  uninjured, 
except  that  it  is  badly  spalled  on  the  upper  side  by  blows  from 
the  wreckage,  but  that  it  so  remains  is  due  solely  to  the  accident 
of  its  position,  and  not  to  its  strength,  although  it  was  and  is  still 
the  embodiment  of  solidity.  Had  the  torrent  struck  it  squarely,  it 
would  have  swept  it  away  as  if  it  had  been  built  of  cardboard, 
leaving  no  track  behind ;  but  fortunately  (or  unfortunately)  its 
axis  was  exactly  parallel  with  the  path  of  the  flood,  which  hence 
struck  the  face  of  the  mountain  full,  and  compressed  the  whole  of 
its  spoils  gathered  in  a  fourteen-mile  course  into  one  inextricable 
mass,  with  the  force  of  tens  of  thousands  of  tons  moving  at  nearly 
sixty  miles  per  hour.  Its  spoil  consisted  of  (i)  every  tree  the 
flood  had  touched  in  its  whole  course,  with  trifling  exceptions, 
including  hundreds  of  large  trees,  all  of  which  were  stripped  of 
their  bark  and  small  limbs  almost  at  once  ;  (2)  all  the  houses  in 
a  thickly  settled  town  three  miles  long  and  one-fourth  to  one-half 
mile  wide ;  (3)  half  the  human  beings  and  all  the  horses,  cows^ 
cats,  dogs  and  rats  that  were  in  the  houses  ;  (4)  many  hundreds  of 
miles  of  telegraph  wire  that  was  on  strong  poles  in  use,  and  many 
times  more  than  this  that  was  in  stock  in  the  mills;  (5)  perhaps 
fifty  miles  of  track  and  track  material,  rails  and  all ;  (6)  locomo- 
tives, pig-iron,  brick,  stone,  boilers,  steam  engines,  heavy  machin- 
ery and  other  spoil  of  a  large  manufacturing  town.  All  this  was 
accumulated  in  one  inextricable  mass,  which  almost  immediately 
caueht  fire  from  some  stove  which  the  waters  had  not  touched. 
Hundreds  of  human  beings,  dead  and  alive,  were  caught  in  it, 
many  by  the  lower  part  of  the  body  only.  Eye-witnesses  describe 
the  groans  and  cries  which  came  from  that  vast  holocaust  for 
nearly  the  whole  night  as  something  fearful  beyond  all  power  of 
description." 


II. 

CARE  OF  THE  SURVIVORS. 


I. WHAT   WE    DID    TO    PROTECT   OURSELVES. 

Set  all  things  in  their  own  peculiar  place, 

And  know  that  order  is  the  greatest  grace. — Drydbn, 

"What  have  you  there?"  said  I  to  a  man,  as  hundreds  of  us 
were  struggling  over  the  debris  toward  the  high  ground  on  Satur- 
day morning,  June  1st.  "Oh,  nothing,"  was  the  reply.  "But  I 
know  better  ;  you  are  stealing  ;  let  those  valuables  lie  where  they 
are."  He  dropped  them  and  sneaked  away.  Whilst  good  and 
true  people  acted  nobly,  and  some  of  the  most  exalted  traits  of 
character  shone  out  in  our  disaster,  men  who  were  weak  in  prin- 
ciple attempted  to  profit  by  this  great  calamity,  and  began  steal- 
ing as  soon  as  they  could  crawl  safely  over  the  wreckage,  and  thus 
illustrated  some  of  the  most  mean  and  contemptible  traits  of 
our  fallen  humanity.  Nor  were  the  thieves  all  Hungarians,  by  any 
means.  Some  who,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  would  have 
been  horrified  at  the  thought  of  robbery,  had  their  sordid  disposi- 
tions aroused  by  the  sight  of  the  ruin  around  them.  From  my 
own  wrecked  and  ransacked  house,  and  from  many  other  partially 
destroyed  dwellings,  there  were  stolen  clothes,  silverware,  money 
and  many  other  things  that  escaped  destruction  from  the  water's 
overflow.  Webs  of  muslin  and  linen,  barrels  of  coal-oil  and  of 
ardent  spirits,  and  other  property  were  hidden  by  citizens  and 
strangers.  Residents  who  sat  by  their  cellars  guarding  their  val- 
uables were  overpowered  by  thieves,  who  stole  silverware  before 

ICO 


THIEVES  AND   RELIC-HUNTERS.  lOI 

their  eyes.  I  was  told,  as  an  illustration  of  the  audacity  of  thieves, 
that  the  valuable  chair  in  which  Madame  Levergood  was  sitting, 
and  had  floated  off  bearing  her  dead  form,  still  erect,  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  up  the  river  into  the  Sandyvale  Cemetery  (having  been 
carried  there  by  the  back-water),  was  stolen  as  soon  as  her  body 
was  removed  therefrom.  While  such  bold  robbery  was  early 
suppressed  somewhat  by  our  own  insufficient  police,  the  thieves 
were  not  driven  out  until  the  detective  corps  of  Mr.  Mann,  of 
Philadelphia,  assisted  us  in  recognizing  the  bad  characters  of  both 
sexes. 

There  was  another  class  of  robbers,  known  as  "relic-hunters," 
who  carried  away  valuables  of  every  kind  as  mementoes  of  this 
great  disaster.  Silver  spoons,  knives  and  forks,  jewelry,  harness 
— in  short,  anything  not  too  heavy  to  be  borne  away — were  "ap- 
propriated "  and  carried  off.  Invading  the  sanctuary  of  God,  these 
"  respectable  thieves  "  stole  hymn-books,  copies  of  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures and  vessels  used  in  the  Holy  Communion,  which  were  shame- 
lessly shown  to  fellow-passengers  on  the  trains,  and  boasted  of  as 
trophies  of  the  terrible  flood.  While  many  sought  articles  of  little 
or  no  pecuniary  worth,  and  others  offered  to  purchase  them  from 
the  owners,  most  relic-hunters,  with  a  perverted  taste,  seemed  to 
suppose  that  calling  the  articles  they  craved  "relics,"  relieved  them 
of  dishonor  in  the  act  by  which  many  such  relics  were  obtained.  A 
gentleman  informed  me  that  he  saw  two  manuscript  sermons  in 
the  possession  of  a  person  on  the  cars,  who  remarked  that  he  had 
found  them  on  Vine  Street,  nearly  side  by  side.  On  the  one  he 
observed  the  name  of  Dr.  Fink,  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  on 
the  other  that  of  the  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  If,  instead 
of  carrying  off  this  property  and  rejoicing  over  the  souvenir,  he 
had  returned  them  to  their  rightful  owners,  the  purloiner  would 
have  saved  his  credit  and  the  bereaved  preachers  would  have  been 
made  happy. 


I02  OTHER  VULTURES. 

But  the  piracy  of  the  reHc-hunters  was  not  our  greatest  afflic- 
tion. As  the  vulture  afar  off  scents  the  carcass,  and  hastens  to 
feast  thereon,  so  the  confusion  and  desolation,  which  called  forth 
the  pity  of  all  the  good  and  true,  tended  only  to  arouse  the  basest 
passions  of  thieves  and  profligates  who  from  every  quarter  imme- 
diately flocked  to  our  smitten  city.  The  most  wricked  attempt  at 
stealing  that  I  witnessed  was  an  effort  on  the  partof  a  well-dressed 
stranger,  with  clandestine  offer  of  presents  of  jewelry  and  money, 
to  induce  two  beautiful,  weeping,  undefended  girls  to  accompany 
him  to  a  certain  city,  where  he  promised  them  delightful  homes! 
Not  knowing  what  was  the  precise  nature  of  his  remarks  to  the 
girls,  I  approached  him  and  said,  "  Do  you  know  these  young 
pfirls  ?"  He  answered,  "  No,  sir."  I  then  said,  "  You  then  can  leave 
here  ;"  and  not  departing  as  speedily  as  I  desired,  I  drove  him  from 
the  place.  Having  afterward  learned  the  nature  of  his  proposal  to 
the  girls,  I  informed  the  police,  but  they  were  unable  to  find  him. 
Besides,  we  were  pestered  with  loafers — many  mere  sight-seers — 
who  hindered  others  from  work,  who  ate  up  part  of  our  provisions, 
and  who  burdened  us  with  the  expense  of  return  transportation. 
I  mention  these  unpleasant  facts  to  show  the  urgent  necessity  of 
the  restoration  of  order  in  our  midst.  Had  there  not  been  a 
prompt  organization  of  government  which  was  a  terror  to  evil- 
doers and  the  praise  of  those  who  did  well,  no  man  can  conject- 
ure the  evil  consequences  which  might  have  ensued.  Of  course, 
we  naturally  looked  to  our  Chief  Magistrate  to  assume  control  in 
this  herculean  undertaking,  but,  by  reason  of  the  confusion  of  the 
hour  and  the  urgency  of  the  case,  he  could  not  at  once  be  found. 
It  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  represent  to  those  not  witnesses  of 
the  scene  the  almost  hopeless  distraction  of  the  people  and  the 
gravity  of  the  situation.  I  saw  then,  and  I  see  now,  that  had  the 
surviving  ciiy  officers  been  able  to  convene  in  an  executive  session 
on  the  street,  or  anywhere — had  they  employed  extra  police  to  pro- 


DIFFICULTIES  OF  ORGANIZATION.  IO3 

tect  property ;  had  they  urged  upon  all  good  citizens  in  the  adja- 
cent towns  and  country  places,  upon  the  Sheriff  of  the  County  and 
the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  necessity  of  giving  their 
immediate  assistance  ;  had  they  sent  out  appeals  to  the  whole 
country  for  contributions  in  aid  of  our  stricken  city — order  might 
have  been  restored  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  proper 
authorities,  and  all  funds  might  have  been  transmitted  to  the  Bur- 
gess and  Council  as  the  proper  custodians  and  distributors  of  the 
same.  But,  when  we  consider  that  the  community  commonly 
called  Johnstown  was  made  up  of  seven  boroughs,  each  with  its 
own  Independent  officers  and  government ;  that  our  Chief  of 
Police  was  overwhelmed  by  the  loss  of  his  family  in  the  flood  ;  that 
no  one  seemed  to  know  whether  or  not  the  Burgess  of  Johnstown 
proper  survived  the  disaster  ;  and  that  the  Burgess  of  Conemaugh 
Borough  was  certainly  among  the  drowned — when  we  consider 
these  circumstances  it  will  not  seem  surprising  that  we  who  had 
gathered  together  out  of  the  flood,  on  Adam  Street,  felt  com- 
pelled to  organize  a  temporary  government  in  the  best  and 
speediest  manner  possible.  It  was,  perhaps,  very  imperfectly 
accomplished,  and  accomplished,  too,  without  any  other  authority 
than  that  of  supreme  necessity.  The  people  were  Impressed  with 
the  feeling  that  something  must  at  once  be  done  ;  that  some  recog- 
nized authority  must  be  immediately  established. 

This  sentiment  sought  expression  more  or  less  fully  through- 
out the  entire  community.  On  the  Kernville,  or  south,  side,  then 
cut  off  from  us  by  the  bridgeless  Stony  Creek,  the  survivors  held 
a  meeting,  which  was  presided  over  by  Mr.  Alexander  Kennedy, 
and  which  appointed  Charles  L.  Dick,  Esq.,  "generalissimo  to  di- 
rect all  matters  according  to  his  own  will." 

Whilst  the  boroughs  above  the  stone  bridge  were  thus  labor- 
ing to  recover  themselves,  those  below  seemed  so  stunned  or  dazed 
as  to  be  unable  to  organize  until  Sabbath  morning,  when  the  Pitts- 


I04 


APOCRYPHAL  STORIES. 


burgh  Citizens'  Relief  Committee  reached  Morrellville,  Browns- 
ville and  Cambria  City,  whose  representative  citizens  then  assem- 
bled and  appointed  local  committees,  through  whom  supplies  of 
food  and  clothing  were  distributed.  The  few  policemen  brought 
by  the  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  men,  together  with  the  efficient 
work  of  Captains  Hart  and  Gageby  and  Mr.  Charles  L.  Dick,  did 
much  to  intimidate  numerous  thieves  who  came  in  upon  us  from 
abroad,  and  especially  upon  that  part  of  the  city.  Although  there 
was  doubtless  much  pilfering  of  valuables  found  on  the  dead,  it  is 
due  to  the  truth  to  say  that  the  reports  of  atrocities  were  exagger- 
ated. There  were  no  fingers  cutoff  by  human  ghouls,  and  no  in- 
furiated mob  lynched  such  criminals.  There  was  little  stealing 
done  by  the  Hungarians,  and  most  accounts  of  outrages  at- 
tributed to  these  people  were  apocryphal ;  and  I  am  glad  to  say 
that  all  statements  of  shooting  and  hanging  them  were  without 
foundation.  I  have  this  assurance  from  Mr.  Dick  himself,  who  was 
reported  to  have  killed  several. 

Chief  of  Police  Hart  and  Captain  Gageby,  with  their  efficient 
assistants,  did  good  work  in  protecting  property  against  the  army 
of  marauders  who,  but  for  our  local  organization,  were  ready  to 
steal  and  destroy.  Within  eighteen  hours  after  the  flood  we  had 
three  hundred  duly  qualified  policemen  protecting  the  First 
National  and  Dibert's  Banks,  said  to  contain  over  ^400,000  in 
their  vaults.  These  officers  recovered  more  than  ^6,000  cash 
from  trunks,  valises  and  chests  found  in  the  wreckage.  They 
did  noble  work,  also,  in  the  way  of  protecting  us  against  fire  until 
the  Pittsburgh  Chamber  of  Commerce  sent  us  aid. 

The  back-water  had  piled  debris  of  every  sort  along  all  the 
streets  of  the  First  and  Fourth  Wards  of  Johnstown  proper  and 
much  of  Conemaugh  Borough.  Dr.  Wm.  Caldwell,  one  of  our 
oldest  and  best-known  merchants,  did  useful  service  by  standing 
at  the  corner  of  Adam  and  Bedford  Streets  and  calling  to  farmers 


PROVISIONAL   ORGANIZATION.  IO5 

and  others,  as  they  gathered  in  crowds,  to  go  to  work  at  once  in 
the  removal  of  wreckage.  Charles  Zimmerman,  Chairman  of  Com- 
mittee on  Dead  Animals,  removed  within  a  short  time  about  two 
hundred  carcasses.  Thomas  L.  Johnson,  one  of  the  owners  of  the 
great  plant  at  Moxham,  brought  all  his  well-known  energy  to  bear 
upon  the  removal  of  debris  from  the  streets.  On  Thursday,  as 
soon  as  the  waters  in  the  rivers  had  fallen  sufficiently  for  communi- 
cation to  be  somewhat  established  between  the  different  boroughs, 
the  appointments  we  had  made  in  Johnstown  proper  seemed  by 
common  consent  to  be  recognized  and  respected  throughout  the 
entire  community.  It  was  at  the  meeting  held  near  the  corner  of 
Main  and  Adam  Streets  that  the  officers  were  chosen  to  whom 
reference  is  here  made.  General  Manager  John  Fulton,  of  the 
Cambria  Iron  and  Steel  Company,  had  been  first  named  as  one 
competent  to  be  at  the  head  of  all  the  committees  that  might  be 
created  ;  but,  upon  learning  that  he  was  out  of  the  city,  Mr.  A.  J. 
Moxham,  of  the  Johnstown  Steel  Street  Railway  Company,  was 
unanimously  chosen  Director.  In  making  this  choice  we  had  a 
practical  consolidation  of  Johnstown  proper,  of  Conemaugh  Bor- 
ough, of  Woodvale  and  of  the  new  town  of  Moxham,  having 
representatives  from  each  present.  Manager  Moxham  accepted 
the  position  to  which  he  had  been  so  cordially  chosen,  and  did 
honor  to  himself  by  his  good  work  for  the  suffering  city.  Under 
him  the  following  named  committees  were  chosen  and  set  to 
work  : 

(i)   On  Finances — W.  C.  Lewis,  John  D.  Roberts,  George  T. 
Swank  and  Dwio-ht  Roberts. 

(2)  On  Supplies  or  Commissary — Rev.  James   P.  Tahaney 
John  Thomas,  Louis  Von  Lunen  and  C.  B.  Cover. 

(3)  On  Morgues — Rev.  David  J.  Beale,  d.d.,  and  Rev.    H., 
L.  Chapman,  d.d, 

(4)  On  the  Removal  of  Dead  Animals  and  Debris — Charles 
Zimmerman  and  Thomas  L.  Johnson. 


I06  THE  COUNTRY  TO  THE  RESCUE. 

(5)  On  Police — Captain  A.  N.  Hart  and  Captain  J.  H. 
Gageby. 

{6)  On  Hospitals — Drs.  W.  B,  Lowman,  J.  C.  Sheridan  and 
W.  E.  Matthews. 

These  committees  at  once  began  their  difficult  and  sorrowful 
duties,  most  of  them  asking  and  receiving  no  compensation  there- 
for. The  plans  of  these  several  departments  were  projected  and 
their  arduous  labors  entered  upon  before  assistance  from  abroad 
came  to  hand.  The  same  committees,  with  some  additions  to  them 
{e.  g.,  Mr.  James  McMillen  and  Cyrus  Elder,  Esq.,  on  the  Finance 
Committee),  were  continued  by  Director  James  B.  Scott,  and  after- 
ward by  General  Hastings.  They  faithfully  discharged  their 
duties  until  the  government  of  the  various  boroughs  was  restored. 

2. THE    COUNTRY    TO    THE    RESCUE. 

Breathes  there  a  man  with  soul  so  dead 
\\'Tio  never  to  himself  hath  said, 
•  This  is  my  own,  my  native  land?  '  — Sir  Walter  Scott. 

(a)  WHAT   PITTSBURGH  DID. 

The  first  statements  regarding  the  terrible  loss  of  life  and  the 
enormous  destruction  of  property  were  received  in  Pittsburgh  on 
the  morning  of  June  ist,  through  the  columns  of  the  daily  press. 
The  fearful  tidings  passed  through  the  city  like  the  wind. 

Through  the  agencies  of  the  telegraph  and  the  telephone,  a 
call  by  the  Mayor  of  Pittsburgh  for  a  meeting  at  City  Hall  for 
I  o'clock  r.M.  was  rapidly  spread,  resulting  in  an  overflowino- 
assemblage.  A  committee  was  selected  to  take  immediate  action 
in  the  name  of  the  community,  which  committee  instantly  began  its 
work  with  energy  and  intelligence. 

An  organization  was  at  once  effected,  including  a  committee 
to  proceed  to  Johnstown   in  the   name  of  the   Pittsburgh   Relief 


HELP  FROM  PITTSBURGH.  IO7 

Committee.  The  intense  interest  and  devotion  of  the  citizens 
toward  the  relief  of  their  stricken  brethren  in  the  Conemaugh 
Valley  were  manifested  by  the  fact  that  by  4  o'clock  p.m.  a  train  of 
nearly  twenty  cars,  manned  by  as  many  volunteers  as  could  be 
taken,  was  ready  on  the  track  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
headed  for  the  desolated  valley.  Off  it  started,  making  its  way 
over  and  through  the  crowded  tracks  of  the  great  roadway,  on 
which  were  gathered  the  numberless  trains  halted  all  along  its 
lines.  At  length  Sano-  Hollow  was  reached  about  10  o'clock 
at  night.  At  this  point  the  roadbed  was  entirely  washed  away, 
and  the  progress  of  the  train  completely  arrested ;  but  not  so  the 
advance  of  the  men  bound  for  Johnstown.  Over  the  great  gap  of 
nearly  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  created  by  the  flood,  willing  hands 
and  shoulders  carried,  trip  after  trip,  their  precious  burdens  of 
food  for  suffering  brothers  and  sisters  from  the  loaded  cars;  while 
beyond  the  gap,  for  the  intervening  space  on  toward  the  fated 
town,  improvised  means  of  transportation  were  rapidly  secured, 
and  by  unflagging  industry  and  untiring  zeal  the  remaining  four 
miles  were  covered,  with  the  result  that  long  before  daybreak  of 
the  Sabbath  morning  the  first  installment  of  food  was  deposited  at 
the  now  famous  "stone  bridge,"  beyond  which  it  was  impossible  to 
proceed.  Meanwhile,  there  was  displayed  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable instances  of  human  energy  ever  witnessed.  All  around 
the  great  bend  of  Sang  Hollow  not  a  vestige  of  a  railway  had 
been  left  by  the  destroying  waters,  but  so  great  were  the  facilities 
of  the  corporation  of  which  every  Pennsylvanian  is  proud  that  it 
was  able,  through  its  allies  and  connections,  to  collect  men  and 
material  so  promptly  and  thoroughly  that  by  7  o'clock  on  that 
Sunday  morning  the  laden  train  passed  over  the  newly  laid  tracks, 
and  on  it  went,  halting  only  at  the  stone  bridge.  A  rapid  exami- 
nation of  the  situation  showed  that  the  immediate  relief  of  all  the 
various  boroughs  and  villages  had  to  be   made   from  diverging 


I08  RELIEF  COMMITTEES  AT  WORK. 

roads  west  of  the  bridge.  Every  available  resource  of  men  and 
teams  was  pressed  into  the  service,  and  from  that  moment  until 
railway  communication  was  reasonably  well  resumed,  the  daily 
rations  of  a  large  population  were  furnished  from  points  within 
two  miles  west  of  Johnstown.  On  Monday  morning  the  well- 
directed  energy  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  officials  had 
secured  an  entrance  to  the  south  side  of  Johnstown.  By  this  time 
the  Pittsburgh  committee  at  Johnstown  had  secured  a  telegraph 
wire,  and  by  it  ordered  all  supplies  from  Pittsburgh  for  Johnstown 
proper  to  be  sent  around  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  whose 
entire  facilities  were  made  subject  to  the  relief  of  the  people. 

The  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee  continued  the  work  as  it 
began  it,  never  relaxing  its  activity  until  the  change  of  affairs  was 
assumed  by  the  natural  and  proper  agency,  viz.,  that  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. Not  even  then,  as  it  continued  to  work  in  immediate 
and  constant  association  with  the  officials  appointed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor. All  this  time  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee  had  the 
direct  control  and  supervision  of  the  entire  supply  and  labor  fur- 
nished for  the  provisioning  of  the  people,  and  the  sanitary  work 
in  clearing  the  towns  of  their  horrible  wreckage.  The  great  pro- 
portion of  the  material  in  food  and  clothing  forwarded  by  the 
wonderful  sympathy  and  generosity  of  a  great  nation  naturally 
came  to  and  through  Pittsburgh,  whose  organization  was  so  well 
prepared  to  forward  and  distribute  these  great  supplies,  which 
came  with  a  largeness  that  threatened  even  to  overwhelm  those 
for  whom  they  were  intended. 

When  the  country  at  large  had  learned  of  the  organized 
agency  for  relief  at  Pittsburgh,  the  generosity  of  the  people 
assumed  the  shape  of  money  contribution. 

All  gifts  in  money  sent  to  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee 
were  taken  in  charge  for  the  benefit  of  the  Conemaugh  Valley. 
Meanwhile,  under  the  direction  of  that  same  committee,  an  army 


THE  ''FLOOD    COMMISSION:''  I O9 

of  between  6,000  and  7,000  laborers  had  entered  the  field,  and, 
under  leadership  of  the  most  efficient  character,  pushed  the 
work  of  clearing  the  highways  and  properties  of  their  hideous 
encumbrances.  With  these  at  work,  a  population  of  nearly  30,000 
souls  had  to  be  furnished  with  its  daily  food,  and  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Pittsburpfh  Relief  Committee  to  act  as  its  constant  and  un- 
tiring  commissary.  What  that  meant  but  few  people  know,  and 
only  those  who  have  had  an  experience  in  provisioning  an  army 
of  men. 

In  this  case  the  demand  was  almost  without  warning,  and 
could  not  have  been  met  except  by  the  resources  of  a  large  and 
well-equipped  city  like  Pittsburgh,  handled  by  a  devoted  body  of 
men  who  dropped  all  other  matters  in  the  interest  of  their  fellows. 
And  so  bravely  the  work  went  on,  nor  did  the  labor  and  attention 
cease  so  long  as  anything  remained  to  be  done  through  the 
agency  of  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee,  whose  office  was  never 
closed  from  the  noon  of  the  day  following  the  great  disaster  until 
the  time  when  the  "  Flood  Commission  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania" assumed  the  task  of  distributinof  the  immense  fund  of 
money  contributed  by  the  unparalleled  generosity  of  a  great  peo- 
ple. Part  of  this  "Flood  Commission  "  consists  of  some  of  the 
members  of  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee,  which  thereby  con- 
tinues to  be  connected  with  the  work  in  Johnstown  and  vicinity. 

While  the  general  conduct  of  affairs  for  the  relief  of  the  suf- 
ferers by  the  flood  amongst  us  had  been  assumed  by  the  men 
composing  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee,  a  large  and  im- 
portant work  was  also  being  conducted  in  Pittsburgh  by  an  organ- 
ization of  ladies  known  as  the  Ladies'  Committee. 

It  can  be  understood  that  a  large  number  of  the  inhabitants 
of  our  fated  valley,  who,  even  with  spared  lives,  found  themselves 
homeless  and  destitute,  eagerly  turned  their  faces  toward  the  city 
glowing  with  the  light  of  the  highest  type  of  charity  and  Christian 
sympathy. 


no  HELP  ON  ALL  SIDES. 

Streams  of  terror-stricken  and  homeless  persons,  widows 
and  orphans,  poured  toward  the  city  of  refuge  and  its  vicinity, 
where  loving  hearts  and  helping  hands  awaited  their  coming. 
Many  of  these  people  had  their  personal  friends  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Pittsburgh ;  but  to  most  it  was  an  unknown  haven,  except 
in  their  confidence  as  to  its  certain  shelter  and  rest.  The  Ladies' 
Committee  was  early  organized,  and  secured  its  first  quarters  in 
the  spacious  rooms  connected  with  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church,  where  they  were  ready  for  work  on  Tuesday,  June  4th.  Its 
rooms  were  open  day  and  night,  ready  for  the  reception  of  refugees 
at  any  hour  during  the  twenty-four.  This  was  necessary,  owing 
to  the  uncertainty  of  the  arrival  of  the  trains,  incident  to  the 
crippled  condition  of  the  railways.  Special  committees  took  charge 
of  the  various  departments  of  work.  Committees  met  every  train 
on  both  the  Pennsylvania  and  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railways,  one 
committee  relieving  another  in  constant  succession,  with  means  of 
conveyance  from  the  depots  to  the  general  headquarters,  where 
nourishing  food  was  furnished  to  every  weary  refugee ;  and  in 
most  cases  entire  changes  of  clothing  were  also  provided.  The 
greater  part  of  such  clothing  was  sent  to  the  Ladies'  Committee 
from  various  sections  of  the  country  for  the  use  to  which  it  was 
applied,  and  in  many  cases  accompanied  by  tender  and  touching 
notes  addressed  to  the  unknown  recipients  of  the  garments. 

Other  sub-committees  secured  comfortable  quarters  in  the 
sister-cities  of  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny,  whereby  every  sufferer 
was  furnished  with  accommodation  and  shelter  until  able  to  deter- 
mine his  or  her  ultimate  destination. 

Many  refugees  took  advantage  of  this  opportunity  to  reach 
their  personal  friends  and  relatives  at  points  beyond  Pittsburgh, 
many  of  them  very  distant ;  and  through  the  generosity  of  the 
railway  ofificials  all  such  persons  were  furnished  with  free  trans- 
portation when  applied  for  by  the  Ladies'  Committee. 


HOW  HELP    WAS  EXTENDED.  I  I  3 

A  Bureau  of  Information  was  also  established  by  the  Ladies' 
Committee,  through  which  agency  many  found  their  friends  and 
members  of  their  families  whom  they  had  supposed  to  be  drowned; 
while  the  whereabouts  of  others  were  successfully  traced. 

Situations  were  procured  for  many  who  wished  to  enter  ser- 
vice in  different  forms,  while  in  many  cases  families  were  assisted 
to  permanent  residence  in  the  two  cities,  the  Ladies'  Committee 
continuing  its  watchful  care  so  long  as  necessary,  even  to  the 
anticipation  of  possible  wants  for  the  coming  winter.  This  work 
will  proceed  through  the  winter,  care  being  taken  in  the  investi- 
gation of  applicants  as  to  their  genuineness.  A  large  amount  of 
winter  clothing  and  new  flannel  received  by  the  Ladies'  Com- 
mittee was  taken  in  charge  and  recently  sent  to  our  city  for  dis- 
tribution by  local  ladies'  committees. 

Separate  from  and  independent  of  the  large  sums  of  money 
sent  to  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee,  the  Ladies'  Committee 
was  put  in  possession  of  a  considerable  amount  contributed 
directly  by  private  generosity,  which  amount  was  expended  in  the 
relief  of  the  ConemauQrh  sufferers. 

Hundreds  of  applications  from  evidently  reputable  people  were 
made  to  the  Ladies'  Committee  for  orphans  for  adoption.  These 
applications  were  made  for  children  wholly  orphaned  by  the  flood. 
It  is  a  singular  fact,  however,  as  shown  by  the  Ladies'  records,  and 
indicative  of  the  disruption  of  the  families  of  Johnstown  and  vicinity, 
that  of  the  great  number  of  children  coming  under  the  care  of  the 
Ladies'  Committee,  there  were  only  two  who  were  without  both 
parents,  and  those  two  were  in  charge  of  relatives.  All  the  others 
had  lost  one  parent. 

The  work  accomplished  through  this  committee  was  the 
result  not  only  of  intelligent  direction,  but  of  hearty  and  contin- 
uous assistance  by  a  great  number  of  ladies  of  the  two  cities,  and 
was  in  every  respect  as  thorough  and  efhcient  within  its  depart- 
7 


114 


OFFICIAL  REPORT. 


ments  as  the  work  performed  by  their  brothers  of  the  Pittsburgh 
Relief  Committee. 

I  regret  beyond  all  expression  that  the  good  Pittsburgh  and 
Alleehenv  eentlemen  and  ladies  who  furnished  me  the  foreofoing- 
facts  forbid  me  to  mention  their  names,  and  render  them  the 
tribute  in  which  all  my  fellow-sufferers  would  cordially  concur. 
The  inclination  to  disregard  this  unselfish  request  is  very  strong, 
believinof  that  the  names  of  those  who  did  for  us  such  excellent 
service  in  our  time  of  need  should  be  put  on  record  for  all  time  to 
come.  It  is  at  least  due  to  our  feelings  to  say  that  these  noble, 
nameless  brothers  and  sisters  have  the  unaffected  gratitude  of  our 
hearts  and  homes;  and  that,  without  doubt,  "the  blessing  of  the 
Lord  that  maketh  rich  and  addeth  no  sorrow  "  will  be  theirs. 

I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  appending  the  report  of  Mr.  H.  E. 
Collins  to  Mr.  James  B.  Scott,  who  was  chosen  by  the  Pittsburgh 
Relief  Committee  to  direct  the  men  and  provisions  sent  to  suc- 
cor us  : 

The  relief  train  left  Union  Station,  Pittsburgh,  June  ist,  1889, 
At  about  4  o'clock  p.m.,  with  three  members  only  of  the  transpor- 
tation and  distribution  committee  on  board,  together  with  some 
seventy  volunteer  aids,  who,  during  the  progress  to  Sang  Hollow, 
were  distributed  into  two  companies  about  equal,  which  were 
placed  under  the  personal  direction  of  J.  A.  Logan  and  myself 
respectively.  The  relief  train  arrived  at  Sang  Hollow  at  about  1 0.30 
P.M.,  at  which  point  the  tracks  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  ended, 
and  from  which  point  the  road  was  completely  demolished  for  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile.  By  your  instructions,  myself  and  aids 
pushed  on  with  such  provisions  as  could  be  carried,  and  in  this 
manner  about  one  and  one-half  car  loads  were  transported  for 
about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  across  the  break.  From  this  point, 
for  about  one  mile  farther,  these  provisions  were  transported  on  a 
hand-car  and  push-car,  as  the  track  was  not  in   condition  to  run  a 


REACHING  JOHNSTOWN.  I  I  5 

locomotive  over  it.  In  the  meantime,  four  young  men  sent  for- 
ward for  the  purpose,  and  who  had  first  secured  the  hand-car  and 
push-car,  succeeded  in  getting  the  division  superintendent  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  to  bring  the  construction  train,  which,  for- 
tunately, remained  intact  on  that  part  of  the  road,  to  a  point  where 
the  provisions  were  transferred  to  it,  and  from  thence  to  the  Con- 
emaugh  bridge,  at  the  head  of  Cambria  City,  where  we  arrived  at 
about  2  to  2.30  A.M.,  withpart  of  the  provisions,  the  other  part  having 
being  left  at  Morrellville,  in  charge  of  aids  who  were  instructed  to 
transport  the  same  over  the  mountain,  some  five  miles,  to  Kern- 
ville,  as  soon  as  daylight  should  enable  them  so  to  do.  This  was 
successfully  done,  the  provisions  arriving  in  Kernville  about  7 
o'clock  Sunday  morning.  The- provisions  taken  to  Cambria  City 
were  stored  in  the  only  room  which  we  could  find  in  the  town 
that  was  not  occupied  by  the  dead.  When  morning  came,  these 
were  distributed  in  small  rations  to  the  people  in  Cambria  City  by 
those  left  in  charge  of  same.  To  reach  Johnstown  Saturday  night 
was  impossible,  for  while  the  stone  bridge  across  the  Conemaugh 
at  that  point  was  intact,  the  railway  embankment  for  about  100 
feet  beyond  was  washed  out,  and  through  this  channel  ran  an 
almost  impassable  torrent  of  water.  The  debris  which  had  lodged 
aofainst  the  stone  bridgfe,  and  coverina  ten  to  twelve  acres  in 
extent,  was  at  this  time  thoroughly  on  fire,  and  lit  up  the  valley  of 
the  Conemaugh  for  miles,  disclosing  a  lake  covering  the  sites 
of  Johnstown,  Woodvale,  Conemaugh,  etc.,  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach.  While  we  were  not  a  stone's  throw  from  Johnstown 
proper,  it  was  impossible  at  this  time  to  go  there  without  making 
a  detour  of  many  miles,  or  to  get  supplies  or  provisions  into 
Johnstown  in  adequate  quantity  via  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 
The  people  of  the  flooded  district  seemed  to  be  stunned  or  dazed, 
and  the  presence  of  the  few  policemen  brought  with  our  party 
to  guard  the  relief  stores  suggested  to  their  minds  that  they  were 


I  16  REPORTED  ATROCITIES. 

to  receive  police  protection  for  their  homes  and  famihes,  and  this 
was  demanded  by  them.  They  were  promptly  informed  that  this 
was  impracticable,  and  they  were  counseled  to  get  their  best  and 
representative  citizens  together  as  promptly  as  possible  in  the 
various  communities  ;  to  first  appoint  local  committees,  through 
whom  we  could  distribute  supplies  of  food  and  clothing  to  the 
stricken  people,  with  reasonable  precaution,  under  the  circum- 
stances, against  imposition  ;  also  to  form  themselves  into  vigilance 
committees  for  the  protection  of  their  homes.  These  suggestions 
were  acted  upon  promptly  and  carried  out  by  the  people  of  Mor- 
rellville,  Cambria  City,  Minersville,  Kernville  and  Brownstown, 
and  noplace  could  be  more  orderly  or  safe  than  these  communities 
immediately  following  such  organization.  The  local  committees 
co-operated  with  us  promptly  and  effectively,  and  by  noon  of  Sun- 
day the  necessities  of  the  above-named  communities  were  quite 
generally  relieved  for  the  time  being  as  to  food,  and  partially  as  to 
clothing. 

We  had  no  sooner  reached  Cambria  City  than  reports  of 
atrocities,  said  to  have  been  committed  by  Hungarians  upon  the 
persons  of  the  dead,  reached  us,  but  investigation  failed  to  disclose 
a  single  case  of  mutilation.  Rewards  for  cases  of  mutilation  were 
offered  to  those  xnaking  charges,  but  without  disclosing  a  single 
case.  The  reports,  however,  continued,  and  grew  until  they 
became  so  absurd  as  to  defeat  themselves,  when  a  reaction  of 
public  feeling  came  about,  and  it  was  quite  generally  admitted 
that,  while  some  pilfering  of  valuables  found  upon  the  dead  had 
been  perpetrated,  the  Hungarians  were  no  more  guilty  than  others. 
It  is  my  conviction  that  these  reports  had  no  other  foundation  than 
race  prejudice  in  the  minds  of  the  older  population  against  the 
Hungarians.  The  local  committees  were  counseled  to  make  no 
distinction  between  Hunearians  and  others  in  the  distribution  of 
food,  as  all  were  alike  unfortunate  and  hungry;   and  this  sugges- 


I 


THE   TEMPO RAR  Y  BRIDGE.  I  I  7 

tion  was  promptly  accepted  and  acted  upon  by  the  local  com- 
mittees, the  result  being-  that  no  more  willing  volunteers  were 
found  to  handle  the  relief  supplies  from  cars  to  store  room  than 
the  Hungarians.  This  I  submit  in  interest  of  the  truth  of  history, 
and  in  justice  to  a  much  libeled  race. 

During  Sunday  morning  the  tracks  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road were  sufficiently  repaired  to  permit  the  relief  train  to  proceed 
to  Morrellville,  and  during  Sunday  provisions  were  issued  freely 
to  all  of  the  above-named  communities,  and  considerable  quantities 
of  provisions  were  transferred  across  the  Conemaugh  into  John- 
stown proper,  by  means  of  a  rope  and  snatch  block  stretched 
across  the  chasm  from  the  end  of  the  Conemaugh  viaduct,  at  which 
point  General  Hastings  took  charge  of  the  provisions  and  issued 
them  to  the  people  of  Johnstown.  Small  quantities  of  provisions 
were  also  ferried  across  the  Conemaugh  in  skiffs  from  Kernville 
into  Johnstown  proper,  which  were  distributed  by  Mr.  Moxham's 
local  committee.  During  Sunday  a  temporary  bridge  was  thrown 
across  the  Conemaugh  from  the  end  of  the  viaduct,  constructed  of 
rope  and  boards  by  a  number  of  the  Pittsburgh  aids.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  only  just  to  say  that  the  volunteer  aids  attending  the 
Pittsburgh  committee  vied  with  each  other  in  heroic  work  in  the 
relief  of  the  suffering  people  of  the  flooded  districts  ;  the  youthful 
members  seeming  to  feel  it  necessary  to  do  themselves  some 
bodily  injury  to  emphasize  their  zeal  and  earnestness,  and  all  did 
so  admirably  that  it  would  be  invidious  to  mention  the  names  of 
any. 

During  Monday  supplies  of  provisions  and  clothing  came 
forward  freely,  in  charge  of  various  local  committees  from  many 
points  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  the  distribution  of 
provisions  to  all  the  points  above  named  were  ample  to  meet  all 
wants  for  the  time  beinor.  In  this  connection  I  would  state  that 
the  survivors  of  the  flood  naturally  over-ran    and    sought  shel- 


I  I  8  DESTITUTION  OF  FOOD. 

ter  in  the  non-flooded  communities  and  parts  of  communities 
adjacent  to  the  flooded  district,  that  all  houses  were  open  to  the 
refugees,  and  that  provisions  and  clothing  were  generously  shared 
with  the  sufferers  by  those  that  were  not  inundated,  so  that  by 
Monday  the  people  that  were  not  flooded  were  as  dependent 
upon  the  relief  supplies  as  the  victims  of  the  flood  ;  indeed,  during 
Sunday  and  the  days  following,  vast  numbers  of  interested  parties, 
sightseers,  photographers,  tramps  and  thieves,  over-ran  the  flooded 
district,  and  as  they  came  without  provisions,  and  as  all  houses 
were  open  to  friend  and  stranger  aHke,  this  influx  of  population 
was  as  dependent  upon  the  relief  stores  as  the  residents,  and  its 
members  were  as  certainly  fed  from  the  relief  stores  as  if  pro- 
visions had  been  issued  to  them  directly.  This  put  so  great  a  tax 
upon  the  relief  stores  as  to  be  unbearable,  and  measures  became 
necessary  to  reduce  or  eliminate  this  evil  as  much  as  possible. 

On  Monday,  p.m..  Captain  Clark  arrive'd  at  Cambria  City  with 
a  car  of  skiffs,  two  of  which  proved  very  useful  in  transporting 
supplies  to  Minersville  across  the  Conemaugh  from  Cambria  City. 
During  Tuesday,  June  4th,  relief  supplies  came  forward  freely  by 
the  Pennsylvania  Road,  and  the  work  of  relief  proceeded  effectively 
through  the  organized  agencies  in  the  communities  named  above, 
and  some  five  car  loads  of  provisions  were  transferred  across  the 
Conemaugh  to  the  custody  of  General  Hastings,  in  Johnstown 
proper.  Adjutant-General  Axline,  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  his 
aids,  had  taken  possession  and  control  of  the  stone  bridge  and 
temporary  foot  bridge,  which  had  been  erected  connecting  with 
Johnstown  proper,  and  the  above-named  supplies,  together  with 
many  car  loads  of  coffins,  were  transferred  across  this  bridge, 
under  the  direction  of  General  Axline,  by  sightseers,  who  were 
compelled  to  do  this  kind  of  duty  as  toll  for  use  of  the  foot  bridge, 
thus  making  themselves  useful  to  this  slight  extent,  at  least.  On 
this    day  direct   telegraphic   communications    were    opened    with 


A  "DIRECTOR"  CHOSEN. 


119 


General  Hastings.  The  enormous  quantities  of  construction 
material  which  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  required  in  repair  of  its 
tracks  east  of  Morrellville,  so  crowded  their  limited  track  room 
that  it  became  almost  impossible  to  move  relief  supplies  by  rail 
east  of  Morrellville,  and  it  was  manifest  that  this  point  must  be 
adopted  as  a  base  of  supplies  for  Cambria  City,  Minersville, 
Brownstown  and  Kernville,  and  this  was  done  on  June  4th,  and 
so  continued  as  to  Kernville  until  the  pontoon  bridges  were  com- 
pleted across  Stony  Creek  from  Johnstown,  and  thereafter  as  to 
the  other  localities  named  and  adjacent  communities.  It  was 
also  manifest  that  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  must  be  relied 
upon  to  transport  supplies  for  Johnstown  proper,  which  must 
eventually  become  the  base  of  the  committee's  operations. 
Therefore,  during  the  afternoon  of  the  fourth,  three  members  of 
the  Pittsburgh  Transportation  and  Distribution  Committee,  in- 
cluding yourself,  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Johnstown  Relief 
Committee  and  representative  citizens  of  Johnstown,  with  the  result 
that  you  were  chosen  "Director"  of  the  entire  flooded  district, 
with  plenary  powers,  so  far  as  such  representative  body  could 
confer  same,  and  an  organization  was  promptly  effected  for  the 
further  work  of  relief  and  treatment  of  the  innumerable  questions 
which  the  situation  presented,  involving  the  welfare  of  the  entire 
flooded  district. 

At  this  time  a  large  number  of  cars  containing  relief  supplies 
had  arrived  in  and  near  Johnstown,  and  many  more  were  on  the 
way  to  that  point  ;  but  there  was  not  a  single  station  or  platform 
of  any  kind  on  the  line  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Road  within 
the  limits  of  Johnstown,  and  the  work  of  providing  necessary 
terminal  facilities,  warehouses  and  depots  for  relief  supplies  of  all 
kinds  was  intrusted  to  myself.  Upon  my  leaving  Morrellville  for 
Johnstown,  all  of  the  Pittsburgh  aids  had  been  turned  over  to  Mr. 
Logan,  of  the   Transportation   and  Distribution    Committee,  who 


I20  STORAGE   DEPOTS  PROVIDED. 

was  left  in  charge  at  that  point.  An  examination  of  all  the  build- 
ings available  for  storage  purposes  developed  only  a  wagon  shed 
some  30  by  60  feet,  near  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  tracks,  the  lum- 
ber yard  of  the  Johnstown  Lumber  Company,  with  sheds  72  by 
22  feet,  corner  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  and  Bedford  Avenue, 
two  store  rooms  in  the  Oddfellows'  building  on  Main  Street,  and 
various  churches.  With  the  exception,  however,  of  the  German 
Catholic  Church,  the  churches  were  not  available  for  storage  by 
reason  of  their  construction  and  dilapidated  condition  ;  but  all  the 
other  properties  named  were  taken  possession  of,  and  preparations 
were  made  to  put  them  into  proper  condition  for  use.  The  sheds 
of  the  Lumber  Company  were  cleaned  out  on  Wednesday,  June 
5th,  and  an  additional  shed,  70  by  22  feet,  was  constructed  with  the 
aid  of  a  party  of  some  twenty  members  of  the  Junior  Order  of 
United  American  Mechanics  of  Greensburgr  Pa.,  who  volunteered 
for  this  work.  Ample  platforms  were  also  laid  at  this  point,  some 
2,000  superficial  feet  in  extent,  and  the  work  of  unloading  cars  and 
distributing  to  the  various  supply  stations  in  Johnstown  was  at 
once  commenced.  The  wasfon  shed  was  also  cleaned  out,  floored 
and  filled  with  supplies  on  June  5th.  On  the  6th  and  7th,  a  general 
commissary  depot  was  built  on  the  Lumber  Yard  property,  consist- 
ing of  a  main  building  60  by  20  feet,  with  surrounding  additions 
35  by  12  and  18  by  12  feet.  On  the  9th,  the  general  commissary 
depot  and  issue  departments  were  transferred  to  these  buildings, 
and  same  were  in  the  meantime  completely  filled  with  provisions 
of  all  kinds.  The  general  depot,  corner  of  Bedford  Avenue  and 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  that  had  been  used  up  to  this  time, 
was  on  this  day  filled  with  clothing.  On  June  loth,  the  floor  of 
the  Catholic  church  was  sufficiently  advanced  to  commence  the 
storage  of  goods,  and  by  the  time  the  floor,  60  by  100  feet,  was 
completed,  the  next  morning,  the  building  was  nearly  filled  with 
relief  supplies  of  every   description.     The  store   rooms  on   Main 


THE   PONTOON  BRIDGE.  121 

Street  were  also  in  condition  for  use  on  the  loth,  and  a  warehouse, 
35  by  loo  feet  with  platform  20  feet  wide,  was  well  underway 
along-side  the  main  track  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio,  near  the  old 
passenger  station. 

On  the  morning  of  June  iith,  the  State  authorities  took  pos- 
session of  Johnstown,  and  relieved  the  citizen  organization  entirely, 
and  all  the  above-named  warehouses,  with  their  contents,  were 
turned  over  to  the  State  on  that  day,  excepting  the  store  room  on 
Main  Street,  which  was  important  to  private  interests,  and  did  not 
seem  to  be  essential  for  storage  purposes,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  by  this  time  being  practically  relieved,  and  were  turned 
over  to  their  owners.  The  cheerful  acquiescence  of  all  parties  in 
the  use  of  private  property  for  the  public  welfare  is  worthy  of  note. 

On  Saturday,  June  8th,  the  Government  Engineers  had  com- 
pleted the  pontoon  bridge  across  Stony  Creek,  and  from  this  date 
the  entire  population  in  Kernville  (some  6,000),  as  well  as  all 
of  the  sub-commissaries  in  Johnstown,  were  supplied  from  the 
Bedford  Street  commissary  in  Johnstown.  Besides  very  consider- 
able quantities  of  provisions  were  sent  to  General  Hastings's 
commissary,  across  the  Conemaugh  River,  at  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  depot. 

On  June  9th,  a  committee  composed  of  Mr.  John  Thomas,  P. 
H.  Chapin  and  another  citizen  of  Johnstown,  General  Axline,  of 
Ohio,  and  myself,  visited  Kernville  to  consider  the  situation  there 
with  reference  to  removing  the  flood  debris  which  covered  a  large 
part  of  the  town.  It  was  suggested  that  fire  would  be  the  most 
economical  agency  for  clearing  up  the  wreck,  and  that  this  might 
be  necessary  as  a  sanitary  measure  to  prevent  epidemic,  which  was 
generally  believed  to  be  Impending  in  case  the  weather  should  turn 
warm,  and  the  work  of  cleaning  up  be  considerably  delayed,  which 
appeared  to  be  certain  by  reason  of  the  very  great  magnitude  of 
the  work  involved.     This  proposition  was  submitted  to  a  number 


122  PITTSBURGH'S   COMMITTEE  RELIEVED. 

of  citizens  and  property  owners,  privately,  all  of  whom,  save  one, 
favored  promptly  burning"  the  entire  mass,  without  reference  to  the 
consequences  to  their  own  property  ;  but  the  problems  involved  in 
the  execution  of  such  a  measure  which  presented  themselves  were 
so  complex  and  serious,  that  none  of  the  committee  felt  inclined 
to  make  a  report  involving  any  recommendation.  The  situation 
at  Kernville  strongly  suggested  the  necessity  for  State  interven- 
tion, with  its  power  and  lawful  methods,  which  quickly  ensued. 

On  Wednesday  and  Thursday  all  the  laborers  and  others 
employed  by  the  Pittsburgh  Committee  were  paid  off  and  dis- 
missed, and  at  3  o'clock,  Thursday,  the  two  remaining  members 
of  the  Transportation  and  Distribution  Committee  left  Johnstown 
on  the  return  to  Pittsburgh,  where  they  arrived  at  12.30  at  night. 

In  connection  with  the  work  of  the  committee,  the  officers  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad 
co-operated  most  cheerfully  and  efficiently,  and  the  committee  is 
indebted  to  said  railroads  and  their  officers  for  very  great  courtesy, 
and  for  nearly  all  of  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  living  had 
while  in  Johnstown. 

As  a  result  of  my  personal  observation  and  of  reports  re- 
ceived constantly  and  systematically  during  the  following  Sunday^ 
June  2d,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  not  one  in  or  about  Johnstown 
suffered  seriously  for  food  or  clothing  as  a  result  of  the  great 
disaster,  as  the  relief  furnished  was  prompt  and  ample. 

1  cannot  close  without  aeain  referring  to  the  efficient  work 
done  by  the  Pittsburgh  volunteer  aids,  who  were  indefatigable 
and  indispensable  in  the  work  of  relief,  A  partial  list  of  these  is 
annexed  hereto,  and  also  the  personal  narratives  of  as  many  as 
could  be  gotten  to  give  their  experience  in  this  form.  In  this  con- 
nection the  work  of  the  undertakers,  so  indispensable  and  difficult 
under  the  circumstances,  cannot  be  exaggerated  or  too  greatly 
commended,  especially  with  reference  to  the  care  exercised  in  the 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COMMITTEE. 


123 


performance  of  their  functions  and  the  satisfactory  condition  in 
which  their  attentions  left  the  victims  of  this  awful  calamity. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

(Signed),  H.  E.  Collins, 

Of  Transportation  and  Distribution  Committee. 

Aids  attending  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee   to  Johnstown — 
"  Co.  A  :  " 


E.  H.  Allen. 
C.  J.  Weisser. 
C.  W.  Winterhalter. 
J.  B.  Boyce. 

A.  C  Stevenson. 
Isaac  Craig,  Jr. 
E.  G.  Graff. 

J.  L.  Dawson  Speer. 
W.  L.  Mustin. 
H.  G.  Pfhal. 
H.  W.  McClain. 

B.  L.  Elliott. 
W.  S.  Trumpore. 
Thos,  Ullom. 

B.  E.  Aaron. 
E.  G.  Pearson. 
Wm.  De  Wolff. 
S.  D.  Hubley. 


O.  S.  Richardson. 
John  A.  Reed. 
Theo.  Sproull, 
Rev.  F.  Rowoff. 
C.  M.  Johns. 
A.  M.  Gow. 
H.  A.  Johns. 
C.  D.  Sprung. 
W.  M.  Smith. 
J.  P.  Brown. 
J.  B.  McNulty. 
E.  S.  Carpenter. 
W.  J.  Gill. 
W.  P.  Bennett. 
Theo.  F.  Farrell. 
Jas.  Hartzell. 
C.  A.  Carpenter. 
W.  E.  Matthew. 


I  have  not  the  names  of  "  Co.  B  "  or  I  would  include  them  in 
list.  (Signed),  H.  E.  Collins. 


The  labors  of  the  people  of  the  twin  cities,  Pittsburgh  and 
Allegheny,  were  incessant  and  abundant.  Not  only  did  they 
furnish  food,  clothing,  shelter  and  money,  but  they  became  the 
media    throuo-h    which    such     cities    as     Wheeling-,     Cincinnati, 


124  REPORT  OF  FUNDS. 

Indianapolis,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Minneapolis,  Milwaukee,  De- 
troit, Cleveland,  Toledo,  Buffalo  and  other  towns  and  rural  dis- 
tricts poured  in  their  generous  contributions.  Wilmington,  Dela- 
ware, Braddock,  Pa.,  and  a  hundred  other  towns  and  country 
places  deserve  special  mention.  In  the  appended  account  of  the 
Pittsburo^h  Relief  Committee  it  will  be  seen  the  amounts  the 
above-named  and  other  cities  contributed  through  them  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Conemaugh  Valley : 

Cash  receipts  from 

Alabama, ■       .  $'^^2  yy 

California,     .......  1,209  00 

Colorado,          .......  2,232  95 

Dakota, 6?>7  45 

Illinois, 32,756  63 

Illinois,  Chicago,  ......  137,699  81 

Illinois,  Chicago,  expended  for  houses,  request 

of  committee,     . 
Indiana,         .... 


Iowa, 

Kansas, 

Kentucky, 

Louisiana,     . 

Michigan, 

Michigan,  Detroit, 

Minnesota, 

Minnesota,  Minneapolis, 

Missouri, 

Missouri,  St.  Louis, 

Montana, 


13,891  00 

19.491  97 

1,616  27 

1,027  37 

5,084  92 

592  45 

15,603  56 

35.775  18 

1,466  09 

8,583  75 

687  90 

16,597  28 

6,642  42 


Nebraska, 475  75 

New  England  States, 5,407  74 

New  Jersey,           ...'...  6,291  35 

New  York  State, 15,768  72 


REPORT  OF  FUNDS. 


125 


New  York  State,  Albany,      .         .         , 

New  York  State,  Buffalo, 

Rochester,     ...... 

Troy 

New  York  (city),  ..... 

State  of  Ohio,    ..... 

Cincinnati,      ...... 

Cleveland,  ..... 

Dayton,  ...... 

Toledo,      ...... 

Youngstown,  ...... 

Oregon,      ....... 

State  of  Pennsylvania,     ..... 

Philadelphia,       ...... 

Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny,      .... 

South  Carolina,  ..... 

North  Carolina 

Tennessee,         ...... 

Utah, 

Washington  Territory,      .... 

State  of  West  Virginia,  .... 

Wheeling, 

Wisconsin,     .         .         .         .         .  .         . 

Milwaukee,         ...... 

Sundry  places,  under  ^300,  in  United  States, 
London,  Paris,  Buenos  Ayres,  Can- 
ada, etc.,  ..... 


;^  1 6,000  00 

20,188  47 

2,111    51 

12,158  57 
7,860  75 

26,906  26 

10,402  85 
3,010  00 
5,640  85 

10,260  63 
7,966  83 
2,709  60 

74,160  32 
5,200  00 
250,770  72 
1.455  38 
312  00 
3,056  25 
6,086  50 
1,000  00 
3,246  60 
8,545  06 

297  45 
18,297  05 


3,209  74 


THE   EXPENSE    COLUMN. 


^^831,295    62 


Groceries,     . 
Bread  and  flour, 
Dry  goods. 
Boots  and  shoes, 
Hardware,    . 


,092  29 

13,636  63 

16,446  57 

9,262  07 

10,987  35 


126  THANKS  FR  OM  JOHNS  TO  WN. 

Coffins,    ........ 

Drugs  and  medicines,  ..... 

Lumber,  ....... 

Stoves  and  furniture,     ..... 

Electric  light, 

Miscellaneous  items,     ..... 

Labor  (recovering  bodies,  etc.). 

Cash  sent  local  committee  at  Johnstown, 

Railroad  transportation,  .          .  .          .          . 

Aid  rendered  needy  cases,    .... 

Cash  sent  relief  committee  at  South  Fork, 

Drafts  and  checks  returned. 

Cash  refunded,  ...... 

Transferred  to  State  Flood  Relief  Commission, 
Chicago  houses,       ...... 

Cash  balance  on  hand,         .... 


Mr.  Wm.  H.  Thompson,  the  Pittsburgh  banker,  to  whom  were 
intrusted  the  care  and  custody  of  the  above  funds,  and  to  all  the 
excellent  gentlemen  who  gave  their  time  and  money  in  this 
emergency,  there  is  due,  a  debt  of  gratitude,  which  the  people  of 
Johnstown  gratefully  acknowledge  but  cannot  adequately  express. 

(b)    WHAT  PHILADELPHIA  DID. 

The  quickness  with  which  Philadelphia  has  always  responded 
to  cries  of  human  distress,  and  the  records  and  memorials  of  her 
benevolence  and  charity,  attest  the  fitness  of  her  name.  Nothing 
that  pertains  to  man  is  foreign  to  her.  This  recognition  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man  long  ago  inspired  her  citizens  to  organize  a 
Permanent  Relief  Committee,  to  be  always  ready  with  men  and 
means  to   furnish   immediate  relief  in  times   of  sudden  calamity 


^8,093 

56 

1,710 

27 

7.185 

94 

1.335  97 

985 

55 

976 

40 

83.306 

67 

3.700 

00 

300 

37 

104 

00 

5,000 

00 

764 

95 

50 

00 

560,000 

00 

13.891 

00 

44,466 

03 

^831,295 

62 

PHILADELPHIA'S  RELIEF  COMMITTEE. 


127 


— an  example  that  ought  to  be  imitated  by  every  city  and  large 
community.  Responsive  to  ordinary  demands  for  help,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  this  extraordinary  calamity  to  the  people  of  her 
own  Commonwealth  struck  the  great  heart  of  the  city,  and  sent  its 
pulsations  through  every  vein  and  artery  of  her  corporate  exist- 
ence. All  classes  of  society,  all  trades  and  occupations,  the  poor 
as  well  as  the  rich,  strong  men  and  tender  women,  little  children, 
sprung  to  the  work  of  relief.  "A  fellow-feeling  makes  us  won- 
drous kind."  In  the  absence  of  definite  information,  they  only 
knew  that  a  mighty  flood  had  overwhelmed  a  portion  of  their* 
State,  and  there  were  sufferers  there  who  needed  rescue  and  aid. 
The  first  authentic  official  information  was  a  telegram  on  Saturday 
morning,  June  ist,  from  the  Mayors  of  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny 
to  Mayor  Fitler,  announcing  the  awful  disaster.  He  summoned 
the  Citizens'  Permanent  Relief  Committee  to  his  residence.  This 
committee  met  daily  thereafter,  after  having  appointed  a  special 
committee  to  proceed  to  Johnstown  and  other  stricken  localities 
in  the  State,  to  ascertain  their  condition  and  needs.  Messrs. 
Huber,  R.  M.  McWade,  Bonbright,  Vandeever,  Blankenberg  and 
McCreary  composed  that  committee, 

Mr.  McWade  is  the  city  editor  of  the  Philadelphia  Public 
Ledger.  The  Ledger  Building  is  a  school  of  charity.  The  dis- 
tinguished proprietor,  George  W.  Childs,  since  the  time  he  went 
to  Philadelphia  from  Baltimore,  a  youth  who  had  nothing  but  his 
own  honesty  and  industry,  and  an  unfaltering  trust  in  his  mother's 
God,  whom  she  had  taught  him  to  revere,  has  manifested  his 
inborn  philanthropy.  He  began  to  exercise  this  when  he  himself 
needed  the  helping  hand  of  others,  and  as  he  enlarged  the  schemes 
of  his  enterprise,  he  expanded  his  heart  and  hand  until  his  great 
journal  and  its  consequent  wealth  have  become  a  benediction  to 
the  world.  Mr.  McWade  displays  the  same  noble  spirit  in  mak- 
ing his  important  station  serve  the  purposes  of  mercy.     He  flew 


* 

128  GENER  OUS  D  ONA  TIONS. 

to  the  help  of  Charleston,  after  the  earthquake  there,  with  ^25,000, 
which  he  personally  raised,  and  has  done  many  other  unrecorded 
noble  acts.  At  a  moment's  notice,  he  sped  from  home,  at  Wayne,  to 
be  present  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Permanent  Committee.  He 
offered  the  resolution  to  appropriate  at  once  ^5,000  from  the  per- 
manent fund,  which  is  kept  in  hand  for  emergencies  of  this  nature. 
As  the  proportions  of  the  disaster  were  yet  unknown,  the  opinion 
was  expressed  that  this  amount  was  extravagant,  Mr.  McWade 
insisted  upon  it,  stating  that  "when  the  facts  are  ascertained,  ten 
times  that  amount  will  be  required." 

Others  besides  the  committee  went  to  Johnstown,  not  waiting 
for  organized  efforts.  Among  these  were  Professor  Forbes,  of 
Jefferson  Medical  College,  and  Mr.  McElway,  who  accompanied 
carloads  of  goods,  consisting  of  ready-prepared  food,  bread, 
cheese,  bacon,  coffee,  and  one  carload  of  shoes.  They  also 
carried  surgical  instruments  and  supplies. 

On  June  7th,  Mayor  Fitler  informed  the  committee  that  he 
had  received  ^50,000  from  Boston,  which  was  duly  accredited  and 
sent  with  the  amount  already  collected  to  Governor  Beaver. 

The  people  were  now  beginning  to  realize  the  nature  of  the 
calamity,  and  exerted  themselves  accordingly.  Subscriptions  to 
the  relief  fund  assumed  large  denominations.  Thus,  on  the  8th  of 
June,  Mr.  Walter  A.  Wood  stimulated  them  by  a  donation  of 
$1,000  through  the  house  of  Drexel  &  Co. 

Then  the  ladies  of  Gloucester  and  other  localities  thoroughly 
organized  their  efforts  and  sent  moneys  collected  to  the  Philadelphia 
committee.  On  the  same  day,  June  8th,  the  committee  sent  to 
Johnstown  125  single  cots  and  a  carload  of  vinegar. 

At  the  meeting  June  loth,  the  Mayor  stated  that  Governor 
Beaver  said  the  money  raised  by  the  citizens  was  to  be  devoted 
to  the  charitable  demands  of  the  disasters,  that  he  favored  assem- 
bling the   Legislature  to  adopt  measures  for  repairing  damages. 


?o 


-^ 


''J.  ,> 


,■»*' 


Z'  —  — —         ......  .  --■*. 


>^1  -^ 


FORWARDING  FUNDS.  I3I 

and  pledged  himself  to  see  to  removing  the  debris  and  obstruc- 
tions in  the  rivers.  The  proposed  appropriation  of  a  million  of 
dollars  was  not  made  on  the  supposition  that  it  was  not  legal. 

On  June  iith,  Professor  Forbes  reported  from  Johnstown, 
calling:  the  disaster  "  the  Conemaup-h  hecatomb."  He  wrote  in  the 
hiehest  terms  of  the  conduct  of  citizens,  and  his  words  did  much 
to  dismiss  the  false  impressions  that  heartless  correspondents  had 
created. 

June  1 2th,  Robert  C.  Ogden  and  Frank  Reeves  were  added 
to  the  Permanent  Committee. 

June  14th,  four  steam  fire-engines,  with  a  complement  of 
men,  were  sent  to  Johnstown  at  the  request  of  General  Hastings. 

June  14th,  the  committee  sent  1,200  market-baskets. 

July  3rd,  the  Auditing  Committee  reported  that  Mayor  Fitler 
had  drawn  checks  from  No.  i  to  No.  18,  amounting  to  $63,575.62. 
Part  of  this,  however,  was  sent  to  other  flooded  districts  than 
Conemaugh  Valley. 

July  nth  was  a  golden  day.  On  the  motion  of  Thomas 
Dolan,  the  committee  was  authorized  to  place  <^5oo,ooo  in  the 
hands  of  Drexel  &  Co.,  subject  to  the  order  of  Governor  Beaver; 
and  Mr.  McWade  reported  that  a  carload  of  fruit  from  California, 
which  was  donated  to  the  relief  fund,  had  been  sold  for  $1,221.09, 
which  was  appropriated  to  the  relief  of  Johnstown. 

August  4th,  Dr.  Pancoast  induced  the  committee  to  appro- 
priate $10,000  to  the  Red  Cross  Hospital  in  Johnstown.  The 
author  is  not  able  to  state  how  this  sum  was  expended,  whether 
to  the  immediate  wants  of  the  sufferers  or  to  the  pay  of  employees. 

On  the  same  day,  Robert  C.  Ogden,  the  new  member  of  the 
committee,  handed  in  $100,000  additional,  which  was  placed  with 
the  Governor's  fund. 

This  is  but  a  partial  and  fragmentary  account,  and  is  really 
only  the  base  line  along  which  the  charity  and  benevolence  of 
8 


132 


GLASS-GLOBE  COLLECTLONS. 


Philadelphia  proceeded.  It  is  impossible  to  give  the  total  amount 
of  money  and  supplies  that  were  sent,  because  they  passed 
through  various  mediums,  to  some  of  which  access  can  not  be 
obtained.  The  principal  ones  were  Drexel  &  Co.,  the  Fourth 
Street  Bank,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  and  the  Cam- 
bria Iron  Company. 

One  of  the  most  reliable  relief  efforts  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia was  accomplished  on  this  wise :  The  firm  of  Samuel  M. 
Wanamaker  &  Co.  decided,  on  the  morning  of  June  3d,  to 
wait  upon  Mayor  Fitler,  and  ask  permission  to  place  upon  the 
sidewalk  in  front  of  their  store,  on  Chestnut  Street,  a  large 
glass  globe  upon  a  pedestal,  in  which  might  be  dropped  the  contri- 
butions of  such  persons  as  were  disposed  to  aid  the  sufferers,  by 
large  or  small  sums,  without  the  inconvenience  of  visiting  the  office 
of  the  Mayor,  or  any  other  designated  depository  of  funds.  Hav- 
ing received  the  desired  authority  a  large  glass  globe,  or  aquarium, 
was  placed  in  position  at  the  curbstone,  and  was  continually 
guarded  by  two  stalwart  policemen,  specially  detailed  for  that 
purpose.  About  6.15  p.m.,  June  4th,  the  globe  having  been 
taken  in  for  the  day,  a  gentleman  called  at  the  door  and  requested 
to  see  Mr.  Wanamaker.  Having  been  accorded  that  opportunity 
he  asked,  "Do  you  receive  contributions  here  for  the  Johnstown 
sufferers?"  Being  answered  in  the  affirmative  he  said,  "  Here  is 
my  contribution,"  handing  Mr.  Wanamaker  a  roll  containing 
twenty-five  new  crisp  notes  of  the  denomination  of  twenty  dollars 
each.  Mr.  Wanamaker,  after  counting  it,  thanked  the  stranger 
and  said,  'T  will  give  you  a  receipt  for  this  amount,  sir."  The 
stranger,  however,  answered,  "No;  it  is  not  necessary,"  where- 
upon Mr.  Wanamaker  said,  "  If  you  will  kindly  give  me  your  name, 
sir,  I  will  not  make  use  of  it,  but  it  would  be  a  great  satisfaction 
for  me  to  know  who  this  grenerous  benefactor  is."  The  orentleman 
again  said,  "  No,  no,"  and  turning  toward  the  door,  bade  Mr. 
Wanamaker  "good-night,"  and  departed. 


A  HANDSOME  COLLECTION.  I  33 

It  may  be  well  to  state  In  connection  with  this  interesting 
effort  that  many  curious  and  interesting  incidents  occurred.  One 
especially  was  an  old  lady  who,  after  depositing  her  mite,  stated 
that  she  had  just  deposited  twenty  cents,  "all  I  have,  and  I  wish  I 
had  more  ;  for  I  would  most  willingly  give  it."  It  was  not  an  un- 
common occurrence  to  see  newsboys  and  bootblacks  step  up  and, 
after  waiting  with  interest  for  a  time,  drop  in  their  nickels.  The 
same  boys  were  noticed  to  return  three  and  four  times  in  one  day 
and  deposit  similar  amounts.  Another  incident  was  that  of  a 
gentleman  who  stood  in  deep  thought  for  a  few  minutes  and  then, 
taking  a  cameo  ring  from  his  finger,  dropped  it  in  the  globe,  with 
a  request  to  have  it  sold,  the  amount  received  from  its  sale  to  be 
contributed  to  the  fund.     The  ring  brought  twenty-one  dollars. 

On  June  6th  a  notice  was  placed  on  the  globe  to  the  effect 
that  after  its  withdrawal  it  would  be  sold  as  a  relic  to  the  highest 
bidder.  There  were  several  bids  offered  of  small  amounts,  but 
there  was  also  a  check  dropped  in  for  thirty  dollars,  with  a 
statement  that  if  it  should  prove  the  highest  bid,  the  donor  would 
be  pleased  to  accept  the  globe,  but  if  not  the  highest  then  the 
amount  should  be  placed  to  the  credit  of  the  fund,  which  was  done. 

On  the  last  day  of  displaying  the  globe,  June  7th,  we  found  a 
check  from  Mr.  Wetherill  for  fifty-one  dollars.  He  evidently 
presumed  that  some  one  would  offer  fifty  dollars,  and  he,  anxious 
to  receive  the  souvenir,  was  willing  to  give  one  dollar  extra.  He 
received  the  globe  and  presented  it  to  the  Historical  Society  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  result  of  the  five  days'  work  was  as  follows  :' 

1st  day,  June  3d, ;^659  ri 

2d     "         "   4th 1,014  75 

3d     "         "    5th, 623  24 

The  special  gift  of  the  stranger,         .         .  500  CO 


1 34  WORK  IN  NE IV  YORK. 

4th  day,  June  6th, ;$400  72 

5th    "         "     7th, 204  29 


Total,  ;S3,402   1 1 

Sale  of  ring,           .....  2 1  00 

Bid  for  globe,             .....  30  00 

Final  sale  of  globe,        .         .         .         .  5 1  00 


Grand  total  for  five  days,  1^3,504  1 1 

A  similar  globe  collection  was  made  by  the  Philadelphia 
Inquirer  in  front  of  its  office,  and  at  other  prominent  points. 

We  must  remember  in  this  connection  that  Philadelphia  was 
at  the  same  time  generously  extending  aid  to  other  stricken 
localities — Williamsport,  Newport,  Jersey  Shore,  Lock  Haven, 
Harrisburg,  Lewistown  and  Aaronsburg  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
Harper's  Ferry,  Md. 

{c)    WHAT  NEW  YORK  DID. 

The  city  of  New  York  awoke  on  a  bright,  beautiful  morn, 
Sabbath,  June  2d,  1889,  in  anticipation  of  a  happy  day  of  rest  and 
worship.  When,  however,  the  morning  papers  were  opened,  a 
dark  cloud  of  sorrow  spread  over  it,  a  universal  feeling  of  inex- 
pressible grief  weighed  upon  all  hearts  and  homes.  The  news 
from  Johnstown  and  other  sections  of  Pennsylvania,  though 
meagre  and  confused,  was  definite  enough  to  satisfy  the  people 
that  a  fearful  catastrophe  had  befallen  them,  involving  great  loss 
of  life  and  suffering.  When  the  congregations  had  assembled  at 
the  hour  of  morning  service,  the  pastors  announced  in  feeling 
and  fitting  words  the  great  calamity,  and  some  appealed  to  the 
sympathies  of  all  hearts  as  Christians  and  citizens  of  a  common 
country.  Collections  were  immediately  made  for  the  sufferers. 
Probably  the  very  first  instance  was   that  of  Rev.  Dr.  John   R» 


GENEROUS  GIVING  AGAIN. 


135 


Paxton,  pastor  of  the  West  Presbyterian  Church,  42d  Street.  My 
informant  was  present  and  made  a  note  of  the  circumstance. 
Thus  I  am  gratified  to  say  that  the  first  appeals  in  our  behalf,  and 
the  first  contribution  in  the  greatest  city  of  our  country,  which  has 
ever  distinguished  itself  for  the  help  of  other  stricken  and  afflicted 
communities,  were  made  in  the  house  of  God,  Consecrated  then 
by  His  service  and  spirit,  no  wonder  the  hearts  and  hands  of  its 
people  were  opened  until  nearly  a  million  of  dollars,  besides  other 
supplies,  were  freely  contributed. 

On  Monday  afternoon,  June  3rd,  Mayor  Grant  assembled  a 
number  of  prominent  business  men  in  his  office,  by  whom  a  relief 
committee  was  constituted.  The  celerity  with  which  operations 
were  begun  was  characteristic  of  New  York  men.  Many  con- 
tributions were  immediately  announced  at  their  first  meeting. 
Mr,  Isidor  Wormser  reported  ^15,000  from  members  of  the 
Produce  Exchange  ;  Mr.  William  R.  Grace,  that  the  Lackawanna 
Coal  and  Iron  Company  had  authorized  the  Cambria  Iron  Com- 
pany to  draw  upon  it  for  ^5,000.  Mayor  Grant  stated  that  he 
had  received  during  the  forenoon  by  money  and  checks  ^15,000, 
to  which  he  added  his  personal  subscription  of  $500.  Colonel 
Elliott  F.  Shepard  reported  that  he  had  sent  through  the  Mail  and 
Express,  ^10,000  to  Johnstown.  Checks  and  subscriptions  came 
in  so  rapidly  that  ^27,000  were  raised  before  the  Committee  on 
Organization  had  reported  ;  and  before  the  close  of  the  day  nearly 
^80,000  had  been  received  at  the  Mayor's  office.  At  the  opening 
of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange,  a  subscription  was  inaugurated 
which  on  that  day  rose  to  ^14,520,  although  comparatively  few 
members  were  present.  On  the  next  day,  Tuesday,  June  4th,  the 
work  was  resumed.  A  cablegram  from  the  London  Stock  Ex- 
change subscribed  ^5,000  ;  Mr.  John  S.  Kennedy  cabled  from 
London  also  $5,000;  Mr.  John  Jacob  Astor  gave  $2,500,  and  Wil- 
liam B.  Astor  $1,000.  With  this  generous  beginning,  the  sub- 
scription list  during  the  day  was  vastly  increased. 


136  ONE   WEEK'S  WORK. 

The  same  course  was  pursued  by  the  other  exchanges,  as  the 
Produce,  Cotton,  Coffee,  Metal,  Real  Estate,  Lumber ;  the  Hide 
and  Leather  Board  of  Trade  ;  express  companies,  beginning  with 
the  Adams  Express  Company's  subscription  of  ^5,000;  incorpor- 
ated institutions,  banks,  insurance  companies,  associated  societies. 
The  most  signal  instances  of  the  deep  and  all-pervading  sympathy 
which  our  calamity  aroused  were  the  subscriptions  by  the  children, 
especially  those  of  the  charitable  and  reformatory  institutions, 
such  as  the  House  of  Refuge  on  Randall's  Island,  the  boys  of 
which  gave  ^258.22.  The  public  school  children  likewise  contrib- 
uted. A  beautiful  example  was  furnished  in  Long  Island  City, 
opposite  New  York.  The  public  schools  there  have  a  savings- 
bank,  in  which  the  pupils  are  encouraged  to  deposit  their  savings. 
Of  the  4,000  enrolled  pupils  2,272  donated  out  of  their  deposits  in 
the  bank  ^452.37  to  the  suffering  children  of  Johnstown  and  the 
Conemaugh  Valley. 

At  the  close  of  the  first  week  the  subscriptions  amounted  to 
over  ^600,000.  This  was  increased,  by  collection  in  the  churches  on 
Sabbath,  June  9th,  and  benefit  performances  in  places  of  amuse- 
ment, to  about  ^700,000. 

It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  exact  amount  of  money  and 
supplies  that  were  contributed  from  New  York  and  vicinity,  so 
much  of  them  having  passed  through  various  channels.  We  know 
that  nearly,  if  not  quite,  a  million  of  dollars  were  raised. 

From  Mayor  Grant's  office  the  following  statement  is  given 
as  the  last  balance  from  the  books  : 

Received  by  Hugh  J.  Grant,  Mayor,    .  .         ^354,520  35 

Received  by  J.  Edward  Simmons,         .  .  162,417  34 


;g5 16,937  69 
Disbursements,  .         .         ^500,737  84 


Balance,       ....  ;^i6,i99  85 


BALTIMORE  AT  WORK. 


137 


This  balance  has  been  paid  over  to  the  Johnstown  committee. 
Thus  $516,937.69  went  through  the  municipal  authority  of  New 
York,  and  about  $480,000  through  the  other  channels  of  its  com- 
mercial and  social  organization. 


(d)    WHAT  BALTIMORE  DID. 

Of  Baltimore,  the  scene  of  twelve  years  of  my  ministry,  I 
employ  not  only  words  of  appreciation,  but  affection.  The  alac- 
rity and  generosity  with  which  its  citizens  hastened  to  our  help 
recalled  the  many  evidences  of  kindness  I  had  personally  enjoyed 
in  the  Monumental  City. 

On  the  3rd  of  June,  telegraphic  communication  having  been 
reopened  with  Johnstown,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  Com- 
pany sent  its  first  train  from  Pittsburgh,  loaded  with  provisions. 
President  Charles  F.  Mayer,  of  this  company,  with  other  officials, 
started  on  June  2d  for  Johnstown,  to  arrange  for  transportation 
and  relief,  in  answer  to  a  telegram  from  Mr.  J.  V.  Patton,  their 
Superintendent.  Mr.  Mayer  left  orders  that  contributions  of  sup- 
plies should  be  received  at  Camden  Station  and  sent  with  dispatch, 
free  of  expense.  This  great  corporation,  with  all  its  lines  of  rail- 
road, is  intimately  interwoven  with  every  interest  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore :  whatever  it  does  is  due  to  the  inspiration,  and  is  pro- 
pelled by  the  pulsations,  of  its  heart.  The  train  of  ten  loaded  cars, 
to  which  the  various  towns  on  the  line  had  contributed,  arrived  at 
2  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  June  3d. 

Large  portions  of  Maryland,  near  the  seacoast  and  in  the 
mountains,  and  of  West  Virginia,  were  overflowed,  and  demanded 
Baltimore's  aid.  The  citizens,  with  the  co-operation  and  direction 
of  Mayor  F.  B.  Latrobe,  were  already  engaged  in  the  work  of  re- 
lieving their  own  flooded  districts  when  the  Johnstown  calamity 
was  reported.     The  Baltimore  Sun  had  sent  a  reporter  along  the 


138  ^EW  CONTRIB  UTIONS. 

Potomac  River  into  Western  Maryland  to  ascertain  the  extent  of 
damage  and  the  needs  of  the  people,  and  make  arrangements  for 
immediate  transportation  and  relief.  He  was  instructed  to  co- 
operate with  the  Merchants'  and  Manufacturers'  Association  of 
Baltimore,  which  had  voted  to  use  most  of  its  funds  for  the  suf- 
ferers in  Western  Maryland.  He  began  to  report  from  Point  of 
Rocks,  and  as  he  proceeded  found  increasing  destruction  and 
distress,  which  taxed  the  charity  and  generosity  of  Baltimore  and 
the  other  cities  of  the  State  very  heavily.  Thus  the  noble  city, 
which  stands  in  the  front  ranks  of  philanthropic  enterprise,  took 
upon  itself  the  additional  work  of  aiding  stricken  Pennsylvania. 

Mayor  Latrobe,  who  was  then  occupying  the  Mayoralty  for  the 
fifth  time,  instituted  measures  to  meet  this  additional  appeal  to 
their  sympathy  and  help.  The  newspaper  offices  opened  sub- 
scription lists,  the  churches  made  Sabbath  collections,  the  ladies 
organized  committees,  and  during  the  first  week  about  ^35,000 
were  raised. 

The  peculiar  value  of  Baltimore's  aid  was  in  its  immediate 
supply  of  provisions  and  clothing,  for  which  transportation  was 
afforded  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  Among  the  first 
shipments  were  600  pieces  of  clothing  to  my  care,  by  the  King's 
Daughters  of  the  Twelfth  Presbyterian  Church.  Other  churches 
of  different  denominations  followed  with  equally  valuable  gifts. 

The  Baltimore  Sun  telegraphed  to  me  at  once  for  informa- 
tion, with  a  view  of  helping  with  the  liberaHty  characteristic  of  the 
proprietors  of  that  journal.  The  American  telegraphed  to  Gov- 
ernor Beaver  the  following  :  "  Draw  on  us  at  sight  for  ^2,000  more, 
making  altogether  ^4,000  subscribed  at  the  counter  of  the  Balti- 
more American  for  Johnstown  sufferers.     Felix  Agnus,  Manager!' 

The  aggregate  amount  given  by  Baltimore  cannot  be  stated. 
The  draft  upon  its  citizens'  sympathy  was  closer  than  upon  other 
Eastern  cities.     Trains  of  twelve  to  fifteen  coaches  a  day  arrived 


BOSTON  A  T  WORK. 


141 


at  Camden  Station  with  people  from  all  parts  of  the  West,  Mary- 
land and  Pennsylvania,  impoverished  and  rendered  homeless  by 
the  flood.  Fifteen  hundred  arrived  in  one  day.  Thus  somewhat 
of  the  dire  results  of  the  floods  was  brought  to  the  door  of  Balti- 
more, and  it  generously  responded  to  demands  of  humanity. 

{t)    WHAT  BOSTON  DID. 

The  response  from  Boston  and  New  England  was  quick  and 
large.  Characteristic  of  the  people  of  that  little  corner  of  our 
country,  it  was  business-like,  systematic  and  consequently  com- 
plete. The  world  thinks  mainly  of  New  Englanders  as  a  manu- 
facturing, money-making  people,  and  Boston  as  a  literary  centre. 
It  attributes  to  them  all  those  qualities  that  are  essential  to  the 
acquisition  of  money  and  personal  advancement  in  thrift,  letters 
and  science,  and  it  has  unreasonably  concluded  that  this  has  made 
them  the  less  warm-hearted  and  sympathetic.  Their  noblest  and 
one  of  their  most  distinctive  traits  is  their  philanthropy.  Boston 
is  really  the  home  of  modern  philanthropy,  where  originated  the 
schemes  and  methods  that  embrace  all  forms  of  human  suffering 
and  human  demands — methods  that  have  become  so  common 
throughout  the  country  that  they  cease  to  cause  wonder.  The 
sons  of  New  England,  not  only  at  home,  but  wherever  they  have 
emigrated  and  become  domesticated,  have  been  prominent  in 
deeds  of  humanity,  and  in  advancing  the  intellectual,  moral  and 
religious  condition  of  man.  The  merchant  list  of  Boston  is  crowded 
with  the  names  of  philanthropists. 

At  the  first  intimation  of  Johnstown's  disaster,  Governor 
Long  of  Massachusetts  and  Mayor  Hart  of  Boston  organized  a 
system  for  contribution,  and  worked  together  for  an  abundant  and 
speedy  relief.  The  House  of  Representatives,  then  in  session,  on 
June  3d,  admitted  a  bill  appropriating  $10,000   to  the  sufferers, 


142  OVEJi  HALF  A  MILLION. 

and  on  the  next  day,  when  further  particulars  were  received,  in- 
creased it  to  ^30,000.  Messrs.  Kidder,  Peabody  &  Co.  were 
appointed  treasurers  for  subscriptions  of  the  people,  and  on  June 
5th  these  amounted  to  ^35,400.  Complete  lists  of  the  subscribers^ 
published  from  day  to  day,  showed  that  every  class  in  the  com- 
munity contributed.  The  towns  and  country  near  Boston,  and 
distant  cities,  nobly  conspired  in  the  work.  Among  the  many 
munificent  donations,  there  are  hundreds  of  dollars  in  the  ag-orre- 
gate  given  by  single  ladies,  children,  a  number  of  orphans  in 
asylums,  bootblacks  and  newsboys,  and  many  subscriptions  with 
only  initials  attached.  The  funds  in  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Kidder, 
Peabody  &  Co.  increased  so  rapidly  that  they  telegraphed  a  num- 
ber of  times  to  Governor  Beaver,  desiring  him  to  draw  upon  them 
or  instruct  them  for  its  speedy  appropriation. 

The  following  items,  selected  from  a  multitude,  are  evidence 
of  the  sympathy  which  pervaded  the  heart  of  New  England  : 

Lasell  Seminary,  Auburndale,  has  sent  three  large  boxes  filled  with 
clothing  for  women  and  children;  also  ;^  107  in  money,  directed  to  Wil- 
liamsport. 

A  committee  of  Newton  ladies  has  collected  fourteen  boxes  of  clothing, 
which  will  be  shipped  to  Johnstown  immediately.  The  Auburndale  Con- 
gregational Church  collected  ^151.75  on  Sunday. 

Next  Sunday  collections  will  be  taken  in  all  the  Marblehead  churches. 
The  Dickens  Dramatic  Club  has  voted  to  reproduce  "  Bardwell  vs.  Pickwick," 
specially  dramatized  by  Rev.  J.  Kay  Applebee.  Circulars  will  be  sent  out, 
and  the  schools  will  be  asked  to  contribute  their  mite.  The  town  clerk  has 
also  been  empowered  to  receive  subscriptions. 

Rev.  V.  A.  Cooper,  superintendent  of  the  New  England  Home  for 
Little  Wanderers,  was  in  the  West  with  a  company  of  twenty-five  children,, 
for  whom  he  was  obtaining  homes,  when  the  Johnstown  disaster  occurred. 
He  immediately  telegraphed  that  the  Plome  would  take  and  care  for  twenty- 
five  or  more  orphans  or  destitute  children.     He  has  gone  to  the  scene. 

The  fund  from  Boston  went  througfh  the  hands  of  Governor 
Beaver,  and  amounted  to  over  ^500,000. 


A   FAMISHING  PEOPLE.  I  43 

3. THE    COMMISSARY    DEPARTMENT. 

The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strained  ; 
It  droppeth  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven 
Upon  the  place  beneath.     It  is  twice  blessed  : 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes. 

— Merchant  of  Venice. 

What  a  spectacle  for  angels  and  men  was  visible  in  the  valley 
of  the  Conemaugh  as  the  day  dawned  on  the  first  of  June  !  There 
were  several  thousand  people  still  clinging  to  the  wreckage  in 
parts  that  could  not  be  reached,  or  imperiled  by  the  fire  at  the 
bridge,  or  making  their  way  over  debris  toward  the  hills,  all 
hungry,  and  many  of  them  injured,  wet,  cold  and  with  insufficient 
raiment.  Many  had  died,  and  several  had  been  born,  during  the 
dismal  night.  Our  first  want  was  food,  our  second  clothing,  and 
our  third  shelter.  Of  the  latter  I  shall  write  under  the  first  chapter 
in  Part  V. 

As  for  food,  many  had  eaten  none  after  Friday  morning,  be- 
cause at  dinner  time  they  were  so  busily  engaged  in  removing 
their  carpets  and  furniture  out  of  the  reach  of  the  water,  that  they 
neglected  the  noon  meal ;  and,  of  course,  those  who  were  washed 
out  had  no  supper  on  Friday  night,  and  not  many  had  breakfast 
on  Saturday  morning.  A  few  loaves  and  some  crackers  and 
bananas  picked  from  the  wreck  were  carried  over  the  debris  to 
Alma  Hall  and  other  places  of  rescue  by  some  persons  early  on 
Saturday  morning;  but  what  were  these  among  so  many?  Most  of 
the  men  and  generally  the  women  insisted  that  this  food  should  be 
given  to  the  feeble  and  to  the  children.  It  was  very  difficult  to  find 
food  that  was  uninjured,  for  in  scores  of  houses  that  had  not  been 
moved  from  their  foundations  the  water  had  impaired  the  food  in 
their  kitchens  and  cellars.  The  provision  and  grocery  stores  were 
either  carried  off,  or  in  the  case  of  those  on  this  outskirts  of  the  place, 
the  food  in  them  was  rendered  unfit  for  use.  Dependent  entirely 
upon  the  outside  world  for  something  to  eat,  many  persons  traveled 


144  DISTRIBUTING  FOOD. 

miles  into  the  countiy  before  they  broke  the  enforced  abstinence. 
But  most  of  us  had  some  nourishment  by  noon  on  Saturday. 
The  sympathy  and  generosity  of  the  people  on  the  hillsides  and 
of  the  farmers  for  miles  out  in  the  country  displayed  an  energy 
and  promptitude  that  was  beyond  all  praise.  Realizing  that  it  was 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,  most  of  these  country  people 
showed  marked  kindness  and  a  magnificent  sympathy  that  was 
practical  and  hearty.  Those  who  wished  to  sell  their  wares  at 
exorbitant  prices,  or  refused  to  take  orphans  to  their  homes  be- 
cause no  one  was  authorized  to  foot  the  board  bill,  were  few  In 
number. 

The  rescued  ones  were  gladdened  by  Reigart,  Troll,  Rogers, 
Graham  and  others  issuing  out  milk  by  tinsfull  to  all  comers,  without 
money  and  without  price.  The  people  of  our  own  County  Cam- 
bria, of  Somerset,  of  Bedford  and  of  Legonier  Valley  in  West- 
moreland County,  all  contiguous  to  us,  were  the  first  to  come  to 
our  relief.  They  brought  prepared  food  and  cooked  provisions 
and  flour,  meat,  potatoes,  butter  and  eggs.  But  it  was  very 
apparent  that  our  immense  population  must  have  more  pro- 
visions than  could  be  thus  supplied.  Some  suggested  that  our 
citizens  must  at  once  scatter  through  the  country  for  subsistence, 
abandoning  the  ruined  city.  Few  persons  were  willing  to  believe 
that,  cut  off  as  we  were,  without  railroad  or  telegraph  facilities,  our 
pressing  wants  could  or  would  be  supplied.  Superintendent  Pit- 
cairn,  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  seemed  to  have  been  one  of 
the  few  who,  at  a  distance,  adequately  took  in  the  situation.  At 
his  instance  the  meetinof  was  called  of  the  citizens  of  Pittsburgh  and 
Allegheny  for  i  p.m.,  Saturday,  the  results  of  which  are  elsewhere 
fully  given. 

On  the  opening  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Road,  on  June  the 
2d,  through  the  efficient  action  of  General  Superintendent  J.  V. 
Patton,  large  supplies   of  food  and  clothing  were   brought  from 


RELIEF  COMING  IN. 


145 


Somerset,  Cumberland  and  Baltimore.  At  first  the  trains  could 
not  reach  nearer  the  city  than  the  distance  of  a  mile  or  more,  whence 
the  donations  were  conveyed  to  the  large,  unfurnished  building  on 
the  corner  of  Stony  Creek  and  Bedford  Streets,  of  which  the  Com- 
missary Committee  had  taken  possession. 

Mr.  James  B.  Scott,  who  had  reached  the  north  side  of  the  stone 
bridge  with  provisions,  finding  it  impossible  to  convey  boxes  and 
barrels  over  the  swollen  Conemaugh  River  into  Johnstown  proper, 
now  telegraphed  to  Pittsburgh  that  all  further  supplies  should  be 
sent  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  to  Rockwood,  and  thence 
to  Johnstown  by  the  Cambria  and  Somerset  Railroad.  Superin- 
tendent Patton  telegraphed  to  various  points,  asking  for  pro- 
visions and  clothing.  Transportation  now  fully  opened,  the  rail- 
road people  said  to  the  public:  "We  will  place  our  cars  on  the 
track  ;  you  fill  them,  and  we  will  pull  them  into  Johnstown." 
Captain  William  Jones,  of  Braddock,  as  well  as  the  Pittsburgh 
people,  now  sent  large  supplies  over  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  by  way  of  Rockwood.  Too  much  credit  cannot  be  given 
Captain  Jones  and  Superintendents  Pitcairn  and  Patton  for  their 
wonderful  energy  in  pushing  supplies  through  to  the  suffering" 
city.  Of  course,  the  trains  did  not  reach  us  on  schedule  time, 
and  the  goods  were  not  manifested,  but  that  was  of  little  conse- 
quence. The  people  who  desired  it  were  enabled  to  leave  the  place 
by  the  outgoing  trains,  while  those  who  remained  to  work  were 
fed  and  clothed. 

While  the  building  on  the  corner  of  Stony  Creek  and  Bed- 
ford Streets  continued  to  be  the  chief  depot,  distributing  commis- 
saries were  established  in  Kernville,  at  Cambria  and  other  places. 
Young's  livery  stable,  at  Morrellville,  was  used  as  a  commissary 
store,  from  which  clothing  was  distributed. 

Subsequently  Captain  H.  H.  Kuhn  was  put  in  charge  of  the 
receiving  department  of  the  commissaries,  erecting  several  neces- 


146  EFFECTIVE  ORGANIZATION. 

sary  buildings  for  the  storage  of  supplies ;  Mr,  John  Thomas 
and  his  assistants  had  charge  of  the  issuing  department.  A  sub- 
department  under  Col.  Thomas  Stewart,  Commander  G.  A.  R.  and 
staff  officers,  was  established  on  Adam  Street  for  the  supply  of 
Conemaugh  Borough.  Another  depot  was  established  on  the 
south  side,  or  Kernville,  under  charge  of  Major  Singer  and  Peter 
Cobaugh,  that  they  might  supply  the  5th  and  6th  Wards.  There 
was  also  a  small  sub-department  under  the  charge  of  Daniel  Ott 
in  the  7th  Ward,  or  Hornerstown.  Grubbtown  and  Upper  Yoder 
were  supplied  by  sending  car  loads  of  provisions  to  Osborn 
Station,  in  charge  of  responsible  citizens. 

A  general  department  was  also  established  at  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad  Station  under  charge  of  Col.  J.  L.  Spangler,  who 
organized  sub-departments  at  Cambria  Borough  and  Morrellville 
under  charge  of  competent  assistants,  for  the  accommodation  of 
those  towns  and  Coopersdale.  This  efficient  officer  also  supplied, 
from  his  general  headquarters.  Prospect,  East  Conemaugh,  Frank- 
lin Borough,  Mineral  Point,  South  Fork  and  other  points.  These 
centres  were  sufficient  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  entire  district  suf- 
fering from  the  flood;  and  to  these  noble  men  mentioned,  together 
with  Majors  Irving  and  Austin  Curtin,  Mr.  Bush  and  others,  whose 
names  may  never  be  chronicled,  belongs  a  meed  of  praise  which  no 
language  can  express.  Captain  Kuhn,  one  of  our  own  honored 
citizens,  finally  consolidated  and  closed  up  the  entire  commissary 
department. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Gen.  D.  H.  Hastings  and  Col.  J.  L. 
Spangler  I  am  permitted  to  append  the  complete  report  of  the 
latter  to  the  former  upon  his  withdrawal  from  our  city,  which  re- 
port is  a  most  important  contribution  to  the  story  of  Johnstown, 
furnishing  as  it  does  the  official  statement  of  what  was  done  by  the 
State  authority,  and  by  the  final  Director  of  the  restoration  at  the 
desolated  city. 


OFFICIAL  REPORT. 


147 


Johnstown,  Pa.,  July  2d,   1889. 
General  D.  H.  Hastings,  Adjutant  Genej^al  of  Pennsylvania. 

General  : — I  have  the  honor  to  report  on  the  distribution  of 
rehef  to  the  people  of  the  Conemaugh  Valley,  made  by  this  De- 
partment. 

On  arriving  at  Johnstown  the  day  after  the  great  disaster, 
June  I  St,  1 889,  in  company  with  yourself,  intending  simply  to  offer  my 
services  to  you  in  the  good  work  of  relieving  the  sufferings  of  a 
great  community,  I  found  the  place  and  its  people  in  a  most  chaotic 
condition.  There  was  no  head,  no  organization,  and  the  dazed 
inhabitants,  under  the  effect  of  this  frightful  wreck,  were  in  no  con- 
dition to  plan  or  organize  The  people  were  entirely  absorbed  in 
the  work  of  gathering  their  dead  and  searching  for  their  missing 
relatives. 

You  gathered  to  your  side,  on  the  night  of  the  ist  of  June,  a 
few  citizens  and  strangers,  and  at  that  meeting  you  directed  that 
immediate  steps  be  taken  to  care  for  the  dead  and  provide  for  the 
living.  You  assigned  me  to  the  duty  of  taking  charge  of  the  few 
supplies  that  were  then  coming  in  by  wagons  across  the  country, 
from  Ebensburg  and  Altoona.  The  next  morning  additional  sup- 
plies were  received  from  Pittsburgh.  These  supplies  were  brought 
to  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Station,  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Conemaugh,  and  at  this  point  a  commissary  was  established  for 
the  relief  of  the  people  of  this  part  of  the  valley.  This  commis- 
sary subsisted  for  a  period  of  ten  days  over  10,000  people.  Com- 
munication with  Johnstown  proper  was  cut  off,  and  I  had  little  con- 
nection with  any  relief  distributed  on  the  south  side  of  the  Cone- 
maugh at  this  time,  and  communication  was  only  established  when 
temporary  bridges  were  thrown  across  the  streams.  The  people 
in  this  part  of  the  valley  were  well  taken  care  of  by  James  B. 
Scott,  Esq.,  and  his  valuable  assistants. 


148  WILLING  HELPERS. 

I  am  indebted  for  many  kindnesses  shown  me  by  Mr.  Scott's 
able  committee  prior  to  June  12th,  when  the  State  assumed  the 
control  of  relief. 

In  the  practical  management  of  the  relief  furnished  to  the 
people  prior  to  the  12th  of  June  I  was  compelled  to  employ  many 
people  to  assist  me  in  the  work  on  hand.  These  obligations  have 
all  been  met  and  discharged.  Very  many  people,  strangers  in  the 
valley,  came  forward  and  tendered  their  services  in  the  great 
work  of  relief  without  any  hope  of  reward,  except  that  which 
arises  from  the  discharge  of  duty  to  a  suffering  people. 

Among  the  many  noble  men  who  rendered  invaluable  servi- 
ces to  the  people  in  the  early  part  of  June  were  General  H.  A. 
Axline,  Adjutant  General  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  his  assistants. 
His  tents  for  sheltering  the  people,  and  his  contributions  from  his 
friends  in  Ohio,  did  much  to  stay  the  sufferings  of  an  afflicted 
people.  I  am  deeply  grateful  to  him  and  his  friends  for  the  en- 
thusiastic and  intelligent  support  they  rendered  in  the  distribution 
of  relief  at  that  time. 

I  wish  to  commend  the  services  of  the  many  traveling  sales- 
men and  practical  merchants  who  acted  as  clerks  in  my  commis- 
sary at  this  time.  I  wish  I  could  mention  them  by  name.  In  the 
excitement  and  confusion  of  the  hour  no  record  even  could  be 
kept,  and  I  cannot,  therefore,  name  them  in  this  report.  Wherever 
they  may  be  now,  I  tender  them  my  sincere  acknowledgments 
for  their  generous  aid  furnished  without  compensation  to  the  peo- 
ple subsisted  through  our  joint  efforts. 

Provisions  and  clothing  for  the  benefit  of  the  sufferers  beo^an 
to  pour  in  from  every  section  of  the  country  in  vast  quantities. 
This  whole  country  was  stirred  with  sympathy  for  the  unfortunate. 
The  great  calamity  of  May  3 1  st,  without  doubt  the  greatest  and 
the  saddest  that  has  ever  been  witnessed  on  this  continent,  was 
only  paralleled  by  the  magnificent  charity  of  the  people  of  the  United 


EFFICIENCY  OF  THE  RAILROADS. 


151 


States.  The  great  wave  of  ruin  that  struck  the  stone  bridge  was 
a  central  shock  which  sent  its  widenino-  circles  to  the  limits  of  the 
land,  and  on  the  returning  vibrations  the  people  placed  their  gen- 
erous offerings,  which  poured  into  Johnstown  like  another  flood. 
Relief  came  in  every  conceivable  shape  and  condition.  The  two  pub- 
lic highways,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad,  abandoned  their  own  business,  and,  with  a  magnanimity 
and  generosity  that  will  never  be  appreciated  but  by  those  who 
witnessed  it,  greeted  the  survivors  of  the  flood  with  overloaded 
trains  of  provisions  and  clothing,  which  aroused  the  starving  peo- 
ple of  the  valley,  and  gave  them  hope  and  cheer  as  they  gathered 
about  their  ruined  homes  and  coffined  dead. 

Let  the  country  thoroughly  understand  and  appreciate  its  ab- 
solute dependence  upon  the  railroads  in  a  disaster  so  widespread 
as  that  of  Johnstown.  Without  compensation,  and  with  a  rapidity 
and  promptness  highly  commendable,  these  roads  saved  the  day 
at  Johnstown.  Their  crippled  equipment,  their  overworked  people 
and  their  superintendents  were  in  the  field  at  the  earliest  moment, 
and  their  efforts  never  ceased  by  day  or  night  until  relief  came  in 
abundance. 

On  the  1 2th  day  of  June,  when  you  assumed  control  under  the 
State,  the  relief  cars  from  every  section  of  the  country  reached 
here  with  no  mark  or  address  indicating  from  whence  they  came. 
They  were  simply  consigned  to  the  "Johnstown  sufferers."  Every 
effort  has  been  made  by  this  Department  since  you  assumed  the 
manaorement  to  secure  the  names  and  addresses  of  the  contribu- 
tors  with  a  view  to  making  a  special  acknowledgment  in  each 
case.  I  have  only  been  partially  successful.  Hundreds  of  ac- 
knowledgments have  been  made  by  the  Department ;  and  I  would 
have  other  contributors  who  did  not  receive  acknowledgments 
from  me  to  appreciate  the  situation  here,  and  feel  assured  that  all 
contributions  were  duly  received  and  appropriated  by  the  Depart- 
ment and  distributed  for  the  benefit  of  the  people. 


152 


ORDER  OUT  OF  CHAOS. 


After  the  i  2th  of  June,  system  and  organization  were  brought 
out  of  chaos.  The  whole  district  from  South  Fork  to  Coopers- 
dale,  a  distance  of  thirteen  miles,  was  divided  into  commissary 
districts.  What  is  called  Johnstown  is  made  up  of  a  number  of 
boroughs  and  villages.  These  boroughs  and  towns  are  South 
Fork,  Mineral  Point,  East  Conemaugh,  Franklin,  Woodvale,  Cone- 
maugh  Borough,  Johnstown  Borough,  Grubtown,  Walnut  Grove, 
Moxham,  Prospect  Borough,  Millville  Borough,  Cambria  City, 
Morrellville,  Rosedale,  Brownstown  and  Coopersdale. 

I  established  two  post  commissaries,  one  on  each  of  the 
railroads,  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  relief  goods  and  furnishing 
them  in  bulk  daily  to  the  fourteen  district  commissaries  which  I 
established  at  such  points  as  would  seem  best  for  distribution  of 
clothing  and  provisions  directly  to  the  people.  These  district  com- 
missaries were  established  at  the  following  points,  and  were  in- 
tended to  supply  the  wants  of  the  people,  as  shown  by  the  popula- 
tion set  opposite  each  station  : 


South  Fork, 
Mineral  Point, 
East  Conemaugh, 
Franklin, 
Woodvale, 

Conemaugh  Borough, 
Kernville, 
Morrellville, 
Cambria  City, 
Prospect  Hill, 
Johnstown,     . 
Minersville, 
Rosedale, 
Coopersdale, 


300  people. 

200 
1,000 

600 

600 
5,000 
7,000 
3,500 
2,800 
4,000 
2,500 

1425 
407 
622 


29.954 


IMMENSE  DEMANDS.  I  53 

This  would  appear  to  the  casual  observer  a  large  population 
for  the  number  of  houses  left  in  the  region,  but  subsequent  ex- 
amination showed  that  nearly  every  house  was  crowded  to  its 
fullest  capacity  by  refugees  from  the  flooded  districts.  Day  after 
day  brought  in  friends  and  relatives  searching  for  their  missing 
ones,  and  these  also  drew  their  supplies  from  the  commissaries 
and  helped  to  swell  the  population.  The  entire  population  had  to 
be  subsisted  from  my  commissaries  for  the  reason  that  all  business 
was  paralyzed,  rendering  it  impossible  to  purchase  supplies.  For 
some  days  subsistence  was  furnished,  for  the  reason  given  above, 
to  workmen  of  the  Cambria  Iron  Company,  to  workmen  of  the 
contractors,  and  to  the  various  organizations  employed  in  the 
morgues,  the  Bedford  Street  Hospital,  the  grave  diggers,  the  Odd 
Fellows'  Society,  the  Masonic  Relief,  Children's  Aid  Society  and 
others.  Believino-  that  the  contractors  were  not  entitled  to  sub- 
sistence  from  relief  supplies,  I  have  invariably  charged  them  for 
the  goods  furnished  upon  their  orders,  and  account  to  the  relief 
fund  for  the  same  in  this  report. 

You  will  observe  at  once  that  the  subsistence  of  so  larg-e  a 
population  required  the  employment  of  competent  men  for  the 
management  of  different  departments,  with  a  large  corps  of  work- 
men. To  each  commissary  were  assigned  a  Quartermaster  and  a 
Sergeant,  with  orders  to  employ  sufficient  force  to  aid  in  the  distri- 
bution, and  make  daily  reports  to  me  at  6  o'clock  p.m. 

The  names  of  the  various  officers  of  the  National  Guard, 
officers  of  the  regular  army,  and  civilians  assisting  me  in  the 
management  of  this  work  are  given  in  a  separate  statement  hereto 
attached,  and  marked  "  Exhibit  A." 

The  work  of  the  officers  was  arduous  in  the  extreme.  It  was 
their  duty  to  make  daily  requisitions  upon  this  Department  for 
provisions,  clothing  and  household  furniture.  They  made  a  can- 
vass of  the  sufferers  in  each  district  and  ascertained  their  residences, 


154  METHODS  OF  DISTRIBUTION. 

their  needs  and  their  wants,  with  a  list  of  such  persons  as  were 
affording  them  shelter  and  a  home  under  their  own  roof.  Those 
who  had  no  place  to  stay  were  furnished  with  tents  by  the  Quar- 
termaster General,  who  promptly  honored  all  requests  from  this 
Department  for  any  supplies  required.  Nearly  every  Quarter- 
master erected  a  temporary  building  of  sufficient  capacity  to  meet 
the  wants  and  requirements  of  his  station.  These  buildings  con- 
tained a  grocery  department,  a  clothing  department,  a  flour  and 
bread  department  and  a  boot  and  shoe  department.  As  soon  as  the 
canvass  had  been  made,  a  ticket  was  furnished  to  the  head  of  each 
family  entitled  to  relief,  with  the  days  of  the  month  printed  thereon, 
and  this  ticket,  in  the  hands  of  the  holder,  was  good  for  one  day's 
rations  at  the  district  commissary  situated  in  the  district  in  which 
he  lived.  A  separate  ticket  was  usually  given  for  clothing  and 
household  furniture,  on  which  was  kept  an  account  of  what  had 
been  received  and  what  was  still  needed.  In  the  distribution  of 
stoves,  mattresses  and  other  articles  of  furniture,  the  Quartermas- 
ter detailed  a  competent  man  to  visit  the  houses  of  the  people, 
and  after  being  satisfied  that  the  applicant  had  a  room  or  place  that 
he  could  call  his  own  for  a  few  months,  these  articles  were  fur- 
nished from  the  commissaries  on  his  orders,  and  receipts  taken  in 
each  case. 

A  meetino-  of  the  Quartermasters  was  held  each  evenino-  in 
my  Department  at  8  o'clock.  A  report  of  stock  on  hand  was  sub- 
mitted, and  a  requisition  for  supplies  for  the  next  day  filed.  The 
wants  and  needs  of  each  district  were  taken  up  and  discussed. 
This  enabled  me  to  submit  a  daily  report  to  the  Adjutant  General's 
Office,  for  the  purpose  of  determining  what  v/ould  have  to  be  sup- 
plied by  purchase  to  make  a  full  assortment  of  supplies  for  the  use 
of  the  people. 

Besides  the  regular  force  employed  at  each  district  commis- 
sary, I  required  the   detailing  of  a  number  of  gentlemen,   whose 


SPECIAL   WORKERS.  1 55 

special  duty  it  was  to  canvass  the  district,  take  orders  for  supplies 
and  deliver  them  by  wagon  to  the  temporary  homes  of  those  per- 
sons who  were  averse  to  applying  publicly  at  the  commissaries  for 
the  assistance  which  they  regarded  in  the  nature  of  a  charity. 
Within  four  days  after  1  had  commenced  the  work  of  relief  under 
your  direction  I  discovered  that  there  were  a  large  number  of 
persons  who,  prior  to  the  flood,  had  been  in  positions  of  affluence 
and  wealth,  but  who  were  now  as  poor  as  the  poorest,  and  were 
naturally  diffident  in  asking  for  supplies  at  a  commissary.  Such 
persons,  as  well  as  all  others  who  desired  it,  were  daily  supplied 
by  giving  their  orders  to  gentlemen  whose  duty  it  was  to  solicit 
them. 

I  desire  to  mention  in  connection  with  this  special  work 
the  names  of  Lieutenant  George  R.  Burnett,  an  officer  of  the 
regular  army ;  Mrs.  Jerome,  Frank  A.  Snyder,  Esq.,  of  Clearfield, 
Pa.,  a  prominent  lawyer  of  his  county,  with  a  corps  of  assistants, 
who  remained  with  us  during  the  entire  month  just  passed. 

Many  strangers  from  all  parts  of  the  country  temporarily  so- 
journing here  engaged  in  this  kind  of  work,  and  many  a  home 
now  comfortably  furnished  will  attest  the  efficiency  of  their  ser- 
vices. I  would  gladly  mention  them  by  name,  but  space  and  time 
forbid. 

The  popularity  and  success  of  the  district  commissaries  are  evi- 
denced by  the  fact  that  many  prominent  people  of  this  place  assisted 
cheerfully  in  serving  the  people,  and,  in  the  course  of  time,  came 
forward  and  received  their  supplies  with  their  neighbors.  When 
the  day  fixed  by  me  to  turn  over  the  commissary  department  to 
the  Citizens'  Committee  arrived,  resolutions  of  regret  at  our  with- 
drawal and  complimentary  to  the  officers  in  charge  were  passed 
by  the  citizens  and  forwarded  to  this  Department — notably  in  the  case 
of  Lieutenant  O.  L.  Nichols,  at  Cambria  City,  and  Lieutenant  Rich- 
ardson, at  Prospect  Hill.  Not  a  single  serious  complaint  has  reached 


156  THE  NUMBER  SUBSISTED. 

this  Department  against  any  officer  in  charge  of  any  of  the  district 
commissaries.  I  am  naturally  proud  of  the  record  made  by  the 
Quartermasters  in  my  Department.  No  set  of  men,  however  ex- 
perienced and  prominent,  could  have  performed  this  work  with 
more  fidelity,  intelligence  and  efficiency.  They  knew  no  rich  or 
poor,  good  or  bad,  and  hence  honestly  endeavored  to  reach  all 
and  satisfy  all.  They  regarded  each  sufferer  entitled  to  the  best 
that  was  on  hand  at  the  commissary  at  the  time,  and  it  was  freely 
given.  They  early  taught  the  people  that  this  was  their  property, 
and  not  ours.  It  was  here  for  them,  and  not  for  us,  and  it  was 
distributed  with  kindness  and  politeness.  Any  subordinate  who 
displayed  a  want  of  politeness  in  serving  the  people  was  promptly 
discharged  and  cashiered. 

By  reference  to  a  former  part  of  this  report  you  will  notice 
that  this  Department  subsisted  a  population  of  29,954  people.  This 
was  necessary,  because  for  a  number  of  days  no  supplies  could  be 
had  here  from  any  source  but  the  commissaries.  It  simply  meant 
the  subsistence  of  all  the  people  in  the  valley  until  proper  arrange- 
ments could  be  made  to  bring  in  supplies.  By  June  23d  there 
was  a  noticeable  decrease  in  the  goods  received  for  relief  by  con- 
tributions, and  about  the  same  time  a  few  stores  began  to  resume 
business.  Meat  stands  were  started,  several  bakeries  began  to 
bake  bread,  and  regular  shipments  were  made  to  contractors. 
Wood,  Morrell  &  Company  reopened  their  store,  and  a  pay  day 
was  had  for  all  of  their  regular  employees,  and  by  reason  of  these 
circumstances  I  began  to  reduce  the  number  subsisted  :  First,  by 
refusing  to  sell  to  contractors  ;  and,  second,  by  withdrawing  sub- 
sistence to  the  employees  of  the  Cambria  Iron  Company  and  the 
employees  of  the  Johnstown  Company,  by  their  own  request,  and 
all  others  who  were  in  a  position  to  purchase  supplies  abroad  and 
get  them  here  in  regular  shipments. 

I  gave  directions  to  my  Quartermasters  at  the  meeting  held 


CONSOLIDATED  REPORT. 


157 


on  the  evening  of  June  2  2d,  that  an  order  for  a  reduction  in  the 
number  subsisted  would  take  effect  on  the  follov^ing  Wednesday, 
and  that  they  should  report  to  me  the  result. 

At  the  meeting  on  Wednesday  the  consolidated  report  on 
subsistence,  in  view  of  the  foregoing  directions,  showed  as  follows : 


Station. 

Cards  Last 
Report. 

Cards  To-Day. 

People  Sub. 
Last  Report. 

People  Sub. 
To-Day. 

Morrellville, 

Cambria, 

Prospect  Hill, 

Woodvale, 

E.  Conemaugh,      .... 

Franklin, 

Minersville, 

Rosedale, 

Johnstown, 

Kernville 

Conemaugh, 

504 
500 

432 
179 

228 

155 
300 

90 

1,500 

660 

654 

299 

345 
427 

159 
19 
50 

200 

536 
291 
700 

2,694 

2,461 

3,068 

861 

324 
667 

1,425 

407 

4,840 

3,969 
4,500 

1,046 

1,674 
1,484 

750 

56 

212 

1,000 

50 

3,522 

1,800 

5,131 

5,202 

3,026 

25,216 

16,725 

:  last  meeting  of  the  Quartermasters,   held   July  ist, 
'.M.,  I  was  able  to  reduce  the  number  of  persons  sub- 
sisted by  this  Department,  as  shown  by  the  following  statement : 


At  the 
1889,  at  8  p 


Station. 

Cards  Issued 
TO  Date. 

Cards  Lifted 
TO  Date. 

Cards  in 

Force. 

People  Still 
Subsisted. 

Franklin  and  Conemaugh,  . 

Conemaugh, 

Johnstown, 

Mineral  Point, 

Morrellville, 

Cambria  City, 

Prospect  Hill, 

Woodvale, 

Coopersdale, 

389 

675 

1,180 

30 

509 

500 

840 

171 

50 

291 

254 

454 

20 

270 

259 

363 

147 

20 

98 
421 
726 

10 

239 
241 

477 
24 
30 

490 
3,014 
3,630 

45 

1. 195 

1,600 

2,632 

120 

150 

4.344 

2,078 

2,266 

12.876 

158  WHEN  TO   WITHDRAW  HELP. 

This  leaves  a  number  still  to  be  subsisted — 12,876  on  2,266 
cards  in  force. 

I  had  fully  intended  to  make  reductions  so  as  to  leave  the 
number  to  be  subsisted  by  my  successor  at  9,000  people,  but  upon 
close  examination  and  inquiry  I  discovered  that  the  average  wages 
made  here  by  the  head  of  a  family  is  from  one  dollar  to  one  dollar 
and  twenty-five  cents  a  day.  I  knowof  but  one  payment  made  by 
the  Cambria  Iron  Company  to  its  employees,  and  I  have  concluded 
that  though  many  of  the  sufferers  are  employed  on  regular  pay, 
they  have  lost  everything  in  the  world  in  the  form  of  property,  and 
still  have  large  families  dependent  upon  them  for  support,  and 
therefore  it  would  be  manifest  injustice  and  cruelty  to  lift  the  cards 
of  these  people  and  deny  them  supplies  at  the  commissaries  at 
this  time.  Every  consideration  of  humanity  leads  me  to  the  belief 
that  subsistence  should  be  continued  for  a  little  while  longer,  until 
these  people  thus  employed  may  get  a  little  money  ahead  with 
which  to  make  a  new  start  in  life.  •  The  responsibility  of  those  in 
charge  of  commissaries,  in  this  matter,  is  very  great  and  serious. 
While  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  and  good  sense  to  encourage  these 
people  to  stand  alone  as  rapidly  as  possible  by  withdrawing  their 
cards  and  denying  them  rations  at  the  commissaries,  it  must  not 
be  done  until  the  Department  is  satisfied  beyond  a  question  that 
the  persons  so  denied  are  fully  able  to  take  care  of  themselves, 
and  that  no  suffering  will  be  entailed.  The  thought  of  somebody 
going  hungry  by  mistakes  in  lifting  cards  should  admonish  those 
in  charge  to  be  certain  and  clear  in  the  premises. 

I  have  asked  your  permission  to  turn  the  commissary  depart- 
ment over  to  the  management  of  the  Citizens'  Committee,  re- 
cently appointed.  My  reason  for  placing  the  distribution  of  sup- 
plies in  the  hands  of  the  citizens  is  this :  The  citizens  have  ex- 
pressed a  willingness  to  assume  control,  and  that  is  the  time,  in 
my  judgment,  when  this  work  of  relief  should  go  to  them.     The 


INVENTORIES  ORDERED.  l6l 

system  is  on  a  good  basis  ;  the  supplies  come  regularly  by  the 
double  method  of  relief  contributed  and  of  purchases  regularly 
made ;  business  is  resuming ;  business  men  are  once  more  hope- 
ful ;  buildings  are  rapidly  going  up  ;  work  is  plenty  ;  money  is 
paid  out;  and,  therefore,  the  sooner  the  management  of  this  relief 
is  put  under  the  control  of  persons  residing  here  and  knowing 
their  own  people,  the  better  for  all  concerned.  The  great  care 
and  caution  required  from  this  time  on  to  so  manage  relief  as  not 
to  interfere  with  legitimate  business,  such  as  bakers,  storekeepers, 
butchers,  etc.,  constrained  me  to  ask  to  be  relieved  from  this  work. 
I  believe  that  the  Citizens'  Committee  will  be  able  rapidly  to  bring 
this  relief  down  to  those  classes  of  persons  who  are  incapacitated 
from  earning  a  livelihood,  either  by  age,  youth,  sickness,  or  in- 
ability to  obtain  work. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  considerations  and  your  acquies- 
cence, I  instructed  my  officers  to  make  careful  inventories  of  all 
stock  on  hand,  and  to-day,  July  2d,  at  noon,  I  have  conveyed  all 
this  vast  property,  consisting  of  commissary  buildings,  supplies  on 
hand  of  every  conceivable  kind,  at  all  the  stations  in  the  valley,  to 
Captain  H.  H.  Kuhn,  a  resident  of  Johnstown,  highly  capable  of 
managing  it,  as  was  fully  proved  by  the  executive  ability  he  dis- 
played in  organizing  the  relief  and  inspiriting  the  people  in  the 
early  days  following  the  disaster.  The  Citizens'  Committee  have 
selected  him  to  receive  this  trust,  and  I  am  fully  satisfied  that  he 
will  not  disappoint  them  in  the  performance  of  his  duty.  Captain 
Kuhn  has  been  associated  with  me  in  this  work  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  I  have  no  doubt  he  will  make  many  and  valuable  im- 
provements in  the  work  thus  begun. 

The  stock  on  hand  in  the  two  post  commissaries  and  the  dis- 
trict commissaries  on  July  2d,  1889,  at  noon,  and  transferred  to 
Captain  H.  H.  Kuhn,  was  as  follows : 


I  62 


STOCK  TRANSFERRED. 


Bread        .... 

104  crates. 

Ham,            .         .         .         . 

.     II       bbls. 

Sugar,       .... 

.         .          \^%     " 

Salt, 

.     112       " 

Oil,           .... 

.        .        5 

Potatoes,      .         .         .         . 

.     140      " 

Vinegar,  .... 

•        .        1%      " 

Crackers,      .         .         .          . 

.         .     3 

Rice,         .... 

2 

Flour,           .         .         .         . 

.     125       " 

Flour,       .... 

200  sacks. 

Canned  Goods,     . 

.     250  cases. 

Soap,        .... 

216      " 

Mattresses,   .... 

.     20 

Coffee,      .... 

830  lbs. 

Crockery,     .          .         .         . 

.     2  crates. 

Corn  Meal, 

381  sacks. 

Cheese,        ,         .         .         . 

14  boxes. 

Butter,     .... 

85  packages 

Shoes,           .         .         .         . 

.     425  pairs. 

Blankets, 

600. 

Lard,            .         .         .         . 

.     5  packages. 

Tobacco, 

81  boxes. 

Lamp  Chimneys, 

.     10      " 

Torches, 

2 

Tinware,      .         .         .         . 

.     2  bbls. 

Paper  Bags, 

5  bundles. 

Pipes,           .... 

.     40  boxes. 

Oatmeal, 

I  keg. 

Beans,         .... 

.     10  bbls. 

Yeast,      .... 

2  boxes. 

Matches,     .... 

.     10      " 

Cots,       .... 

25 

Candles,      .... 

.     20  boxes. 

Coffee  Mills,    . 

•         .         3       " 

Tea,    ..... 

.     2 

Bedsteads, 

4 

VALUE  OF  RELIEF  DISTRIBUTED.  1  63 

Johnstown,  July  24th,  1889. 
Colonel  y,  L.  Spa^tgler,  Johnstown,  Pa. 

Dear  Sir  : — We  have  on  our  sidings  cars  relief  goods,  etc., 
as  follows  : 

C.  St.  L.  &  P.  merchandise  9,313.       P.  R.  R.  12,063  shelled  corn. 
M.  L.  2,370  sugar.  C.  St.  L.  &  P.  9,405  lumber. 

C.  M.  &  St.  P.  1,102  merchandise.        P.  R.  R.  70,425  furniture. 
C.  St.  L.  &  P.  9,655  merchandise.        P.  C.  &  St.  L.  2,064  flour. 
C.  Co.  998  woodenware.  T.  H.  &  I.  U.  L.  16,408  flour. 

P.R.R.  41,109  meat  &  canned  goods.     P.  C.  &  St.  L.  2,857  hams. 
P.  R.  R.  49,034  merchandise.  N.  C.  7,147  stoves. 

A.  V.  1,342  merchandise.  P.  R.  R.  1,050  furniture. 

P.  R.  R.  41,046  canned  goods,  etc.     P.  C.  &  St.  L.  6,014  A^e  pipe. 
C.  Co.  1,515  ear  corn.  P.  C.  &  St.  L.  6,835  disinfectant. 

C.  M.  &  St.  Paul,  6,414.  U.  L.  3,886  merchandise. 

20  small  lots  of  goods. 
Yours,  etc., 

F.  S.  Deckert, 

Agent,  P.  R.  R. 

Also  a  large  quantity  of  stoves,  fixtures,  cooking  utensils  and 
clothing. 

Receipts  were  taken  from  Captain  Kuhn  for  all  these  articles. 

I  made  some  attempt  to  secure  a  report  of  the  value  of  the 
relief  distributed  in  all  the  various  forms  in  which  it  was  sent  here, 
from  the  12th  of  June  to  the  date  of  transfer  of  the  commissary  to 
the  citizens.  Of  course,  no  accounts  could  have  been  kept  by  the 
Quartermasters,  because  the  necessity  of  prompt  action  and  the 
want  of  proper  facilities  prevented  anything  of  the  kind.  From 
the  meagre  reports  in  my  possession  I  would  estimate  the  value  of 
supplies  distributed  between  the  dates  referred  to  at  ;^6oo,ooo,  and 
as  much  more  from  the  ist  of  June  to  the  12th,  making  a  total  of 
^1,200,000.     This  does  not  embrace  the  value  of  the  great  quanti- 


1 64 


JVAGES  OF  WORKERS. 


ties  of  supplies  distributed  by  the  Red  Cross,  the  Odd  Fellows, 
the  Masons,  the  veterans  and  private  parties. 

In  the  distribution  of  these  supplies  over  an  area  of  territory 
of  fifteen  miles  to  ten  different  district  commissaries,  many  of  which 
had  to  be  reached  by  wagons,  I  was  necessarily  compelled  to 
employ  a  large  force  of  men.  In  the  employment  of  this  force  I 
tried  to  prefer  citizens  of  the  valley,  but  owing  to  the  fact  that  they 
were  principally  engaged  in  looking  after  their  living  friends,  and 
searching  for  their  lost  ones,  I  could  not  rely  upon  their  continu- 
ance in  my  service.  The  wages  established  were  $1.50  per  day 
for  laborers,  ^2.00  per  day  for  clerks  and  the  commissaries,  $3.00 
per  day  for  foreman,  and  the  regular  pay  allowed  officers  of  the 
National  Guard  according  to  their  rank.  I  have  made  a  few 
special  contracts  for  extra  compensation  with  gentlemen  of  experi- 
ence and  ability,  without  whose  invaluable  aid  I  could  not  have 
managed  and  controlled  the  business  of  my  Department.  Ordi- 
narily, the  wages  paid  might  seem  liberal,  but  when  it  is  known 
that  these  employees  in  all  the  departments  were  required  to  seek 
shelter  at  night  in  freight  stations,  barns,  damp  tents  knd  insecure 
buildings,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  wages  were  reasonable  in 
the  extreme.  The  work  was  so  arduous  and  continuous  that  few 
men  who  started  in  from  the  first  remained  with  me  to  the  last. 

I  have  also  to  report  that  a  number  of  people  were  employed 
at  your  suggestion  to  do  relief  work  prior  to  June  12th.  A  special 
pay  roll  was  prepared  by  this  Department,  and  the  amount  thus 
paid  is  contained  in  a  financial  statement  marked  "  Exhibit." 

In  the  matter  of  furnishing  relief,  owing  to  the  irregularity  of 
contributions,  I  was  compelled  to  purchase  butter  and  fresh  meat 
from  time  to  time.  I  also  arranged  with  the  gentlemen  composing 
the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Committee  to  furnish  me  regular  supplies  of 
bread  and  other  articles.  All  my  requisitions  upon  the  Pittsburgh 
Committee  were  promptly  honored.     Until  this  arrangement  was 


CLOSING  SUGGESTIONS.  I  65 

perfected  I  experienced  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  meeting-  the 
wants  of  the  people.  Their  prompt  action  and  liberal  supplies 
enabled  me  to  fill  all  my  requisitions  and  satisfy  the  people.  I 
also  received  large  consignments  of  boots  and  shoes,  mattresses, 
bedding,  stoves,  sugar  and  other  articles  from  the  Commission. 
A  statement  of  the  quantities  thus  received  is  hereto  attached  and 
made  a  part  of  this  report,  and  marked  "Exhibit  B." 

This  report  does  not  include  any  expenditures  on  behalf  .of 
the  Commonwealth.  Owing  to  the  great  proportions  which  the 
business  of  this  Department  assumed  in  the  distribution  of  contri- 
butions, I  was  relieved  from  making  purchases  for  these  headquar- 
ters and  the  Fourteenth  Regiment.  I  have  assumed  the  payment  of 
officers  of  the  National  Guard  in  my  Department,  because  their 
services  were  required  and  rendered  in  the  distribution  of  relief 
alone. 

This  Department  has  had  nothing  to  do  with  commissary  busi- 
ness proper,  but  was  solely  used  as  a  branch  of  the  service  for  the 
purpose  of  relief  in  this  valley.  Hence  all  members  of  the 
National  Guard  are  entitled  to  be  paid  out  of  the  relief  fund.  If 
a  different  view  be  taken  of  this  matter  hereafter  it  can  be  ad- 
justed accordingly,  and  the  State  can  make  good  the  money  thus 
expended. 

In  closing  this  report  on  the  work  of  this  Department,  I  can- 
not refrain  from  giving  utterance  to  the  following  sentiments : 

1st.  That  the  prompt  relief  furnished  the  distressed  people  of 
the  Conemaugh  Valley  by  this  Department  was  mainly  due  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  National  Guard  as  an  organization.  Coming 
here  as  a  citizen,  simply  to  do  my  duty,  with  a  slight  prejudice 
against  the  propriety  of  intrusting  so  great  a  charity  to  military 
people,  I  am  free  to  acknowledge  now  that  the  use  of  Quartermas- 
ters and  Sergeants  at  the  district  commissaries  was  a  great  advan- 
tage, both  to   the  Department  and  to    the   people.     Every  man 


I  66  CLOSING  SUGGESTIONS. 

trained  to  obey  and  anxious  to  make  a  good  record  was  a  power- 
ful incentive  to  do  two  men's  work,  and  to  show  the  best  possible 
results.  The  people  of  the  State,  as  well  as  the  Guard,  have 
reason  to  be  proud  of  their  record  at  Johnstown, 

2d.  Relief  for  Johnstown  must  continue  for  some  time  yet. 
The  people  are  comfortably  subsisted  and  clothed,  but  the  question 
as  to  the  furnishing  of  homes  has  not  been  met.  This  Department 
has  made  a  beginning,  but  the  end  is  far  off  yet.  There  is  a  crying 
need  every  hour  of  the  day  for  all  those  articles  which  constitute 
the  furnishing  of  simply  a  kitchen.  Let  the  generous  citizens 
understand  that  stoves,  mattresses,  bedding  and  furniture  are 
required  here  in  great  abundance.  I  sincerely  hope  that  the 
various  municipalities  will  appreciate  this  intelligence,  and  not 
cease  until  the  ruined  homes  shall  be  partially  restored.  Think  of 
the  widows  made,  the  orphans  left  and  the  homeless  many,  and 
let  your  charity  come. 

3d.  Better  than  all,  I  sincerely  recommend  that,  instead  of 
sending  relief  in  the  form  of  household  furnishings,  money  be 
extended  to  the  people  in  their  distress,  and  let  them  purchase  for 
themselves.  The  Commission  of  the  State  already  appreciates  the 
situation,  and  in  the  person  of  Honorable  H.  H.  Cummin  is  here 
to  afford  temporary  relief  in  this  direction.  But  where  are  the 
holders  of  the  various  other  funds  raised  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Johnstown  sufferers  ?  Are  they  still  discussing  plans  and  theories 
of  equitable  distribution,  while  the  people  of  this  valley  are  hourly 
refused  those  articles  of  necessity  which  afford  shelter  and  com- 
fort ?  I  am  sure  that  if  New  York,  Boston  and  other  cities 
understood  and  appreciated  the  situation  among  the  people  here, 
the  earliest  train  would  bring  their  committees,  and  in  twenty-four 
hours  they  would  be  satisfied  as  to  the  good  they  could  accomplish 
with  money.  I  will  only  be  too  glad  to  give  data  and  information 
on  application  to  any  of  the  representatives  of  these  funds  with  a 


THANKS  TO  GENERAL  HASTINGS.  I  67 

view  to  afford  the  people  the  means  of  a  plain  existence.  The 
necessity  is  great.     Let  the  remedy  be  prompt. 

4th.  I  am  deeply  grateful  in  the  management  of  relief  in  my 
Department  to  his  Excellency  Governor  James  A.  Beaver,  for 
prompt  compliance  with  my  requisitions  at  a  time  when  relief  was 
most  needed  ;  to  the  gentlemen  composing  the  Pittsburgh  Com- 
mittee ;  to  General  Wiley  for  assistance  and  protection  afforded 
this  Department  by  the  use  of  the  troops,  and  to  the  different  de- 
partments of  the  National  Guard  for  invaluable  assistance  when- 
ever called  for. 

I  cannot  close  this  report  without  thanking  you.  General 
Hastings,  for  your  aid  and  advice  during  the  entire  management 
of  this  Department.  I  know  full  well  how  the  fear  of  a  famine 
among  this  people,  by  reason  of  the  failure  of  sufficient  food,  occu- 
pied and  distressed  your  mind  in  the  first  ten  days  of  my  manage- 
ment. Your  interest  and  your  worry  never  ceased  until  the 
nightly  reports  from  this  Department  and  the  free  expression  of 
the  people  on  all  sides  convinced  you  that  there  was  enough  and 
plenty  for  all.  The  people  of  the  State  may  hold  you  in  high 
esteem  for  valuable  public  services  rendered  in  your  capacity  as 
citizen,  soldier  and  statesman,  but  your  clear  head,  generous 
nature  and  kindly  response  to  the  demands  of  the  distressed  at 
Johnstown  will  be  the  brightest  record  and  the  best  achievement 
you  can  ever  hope  to  attain  in  this  world,  however  exalted  and 
noble  your  future  station  may  be. 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  L.  Spangler, 
Lt.  Col.  and  Asst.  Com.  Gen.  of  Pa. 


1 


1 68  MILITAR  V  HELPERS. 

Officers  of  the  National  Guard,  Regtilar  Army  Officers  and  CiviliaJts  on  Ditty 
in  the  Commissary  Department : 

Lieutenant  Colonel  J.  L,  Spangler,  Asst.  Com.  General. 

Lieutenant  J.  P.  Albro,  R.  Q.  M.,  13th  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  C.  E.  Brown,  R.  Q,  M.,  i8th  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  W.  H.  Bean,  2d  Cavalry,  U.  S.  A. 

Major  Austin  Curtin,  Com.  2d  Brigade. 

Major  W.  H.  Horn,  Com.  3d  Brigade. 

Major  J.  S.  Singer,  Com.  ist  Brigade. 

Major  H.  P.  Moyer,  Quartermaster  3d  Brigade. 

Captain  Gageby,  U.  S.  A. 

Captain  Amos  Mullen,  5th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Captain  J.  A,  Loar,  loth  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  George  R.  Burnett,  Cavalry,  U.  S.  A. 

Lieutenant  F.  P.  Koons,  R.  Q.  M.,  ist  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  Miller,  U.  S.  A. 

Lieutenant  Herbert  Cox,  3d  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  William  R.  Klein,  R.  Q.  M.,  4th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  S.  H.  Williams,  R.  Q.  M.,  5th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  J.  M.  Baker,  R.  Q.  M.,  6th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  W.  F.  Richardson,  R.  Q.  M.,  8th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  F.  L.  H utter,  Ins.  R.  P.,  8th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  G.  G.  Mercer,  R.  Q.  M.,  9th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  F.  L.  KcKee,  2d  Lieutenant,  9th  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  O.  L.  Nichols,  R.  Q.  M.,  12th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  A.  P.  Buckholdt,  R.  Q.  M.,  15th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  E.  D.  V.  Selden,  R.  Q.  M.,  i6th  Regiment,  N.  G.  P. 

Lieutenant  Frank  Cooper,  R.  Adjutant,  S.  F 

Lieutenant  U.  G.  Condon,  R.  Q.  M.,  S.  F. 

Nan-  Commissioned  Officers : 

W.  T,  Singer,  Com.  Sgt,  2d  Brigade. 
William  Williams,  Ord.  Sgt,  1st  Brigade. 
F.  A.  Bingham,  Q.  M.  Sgt,  ist  Regiment. 


SUPPLIES  DISTRIBUTED.  I  7  I 

W.  W.   Bell,  Jr.,  Com.  Sgt,  2d  Regiment. 

Charles  Bowen,  Q.  M.  Sgt.,  2d  Regiment. 

George  Ryan,  Sgt,  3d  Regiment. 

A.  J.  Adrian,  Com.  Sgt.,  4th  Regiment. 

Green,  Sgt.,  6th  Regiment. 

D.  G.  Brindle,  Com.  Sgt.,  8th  Regiment. 

R.  S.  Magee,  Q.  M.  Sgt.,  8th   Regiment. 

A.  E.  Collamer,  Q.  M.  Sgt.,  9th  Regiment. 

I.  A.  Weill,  Sgt.,  9th  Regiment. 

J.  L.  Cogswell,  i6th   Regiment. 

J.  W.  Packer,  Q.  M.  Sgt.,  S.  F. 

Civilians  : 

S.  M.  Buck,  Bellefonte,  Pa. 
J.  R.   Rose,  Allegheny,  Pa. 
H.  P.   Harris,  Bellefonte,  Pa. 
W.  F.  Reeder,  Bellefonte,  Pa. 
H.  C.  Quigley,  Bellefonte,  Pa. 
H.  S.  Walker,  Norristown,  Pa. 
C.  C.  Berry. 

Frank  Snyder,   Clearfield,  Pa. 
H.  P.  Bush,  Bellefonte,  Pa. 
J.  D.  Hicks,  Esq.,  Altoona,  Pa. 

Statement  showing  supplies  furnished  this  Department  for 
distribution  by  certain  Relief  Committees. 

Supplies  shipped  by  the  Citizens'  Permanent  Relief  Com- 
mittee of  Philadelphia  and  forwarded  to  General  Hastings  : 

6,927  pairs  of  shoes,  assorted  sizes.  12  gross  hair  brushes. 

1,025  cots.  12       "    hair  combs. 

100  cots  donated.  12       "    tooth  brushes. 

1,125  pillows.  20       "     medicated  paper. 

250  sheets.  1,949  feet  stove-pipe,  elbows  and  joints, 

125  pillow  cases.  517  stoves. 
10 


I  72  SUPPLIES  DISTRIBUTED. 

121  mattresses.  512  cook  pots. 

510  pairs  of  blankets.  537  fry  pans. 

604  doz.  hosiery  and  underwear.         470  tea  kettles. 

3  large  tents. 

Supplies   shipped   to  General   Hastings  from    June   i8th    to 
27th  on  requisition  through  Governor  Beaver: 


96 

bushels  beans. 

45,615  pounds  ham. 

1,000 

gallons 

oil. 

2,860        "         lard. 

952 

pounds 

tea. 

1,000  cases  canned  goods,  2,000  doz. 

3,000 

(< 

candles. 

20  boxes  yeast  cakes. 

99.757 

" 

sugar. 

6,338  pounds  rice. 

10,337 

<( 

butter. 

551  gallons  vinegar. 

19,586 

<( 

cheese. 

312  pounds  pepper. 

23,965 

po 

unds  coffee. 

Supplies    shipped    by  the    Pittsburgh    Committee : 

26  barrels  bacon.  25  boxes  beans. 

1,000  gallons  sirup.  25       "       corn. 

100  boxes  cheese.  84      "      corn  beef 

50      "      tomatoes.  50      "      coffee. 

15,000  pounds  of  bread  daily  from  S.  S.   Marvin  &  Co.  from  June  15th  to 

June  27th. 

Other  supplies  were  furnished  by  the  Pittsburgh  Committee, 
of  which  I  have  no  record. 

J.  L.  Spangler,  A.  C.  G. 
Statement. 

To  cash  per  item, ;^28,720  67 

By  amount  paid  on  pay  rolls  for  labor,        .         .        ^15,088  53 
Cash  paid  Lieutenant  Colonel  Gray  from  sale  of 

relief  goods,  ......  61   20 

Cash  paid  Colonel  Gray  by  Q.  M.  from  collec- 
tions from  contractors  for  sale  of  relief  goods,  2,776  37 


ESTABLISHING  A  HOSPITAL.  173 


Cash  amount 

paic 

labor  by  vouchers, 

^3.925   82 

( 

for  provisions,     . 

5.637  27 

( 

freight  and  express, 

1,012   13 

<<                     w 

lumber  and  hardware, 

57  10 

•■ 

soap, 

135  00 

( 

butchers'  tools, 

19  75 

< 

kitchen  tools. 

7  50 

4. — HOSPITALS. 

$28,720  6-] 


"  Sweet  mercy  is  nobility's  true  badge." — Shakespeare. 

From  the  entrance  of  sin  into  the  world,  the  care  of  the  sick, 
the  suffering  and  dying  has  been  a  duty  that  has  demanded  the 
attention  of  the  living,  and  has  required  considerable  time  and 
labor  even  in  ordinary  times.  When  the  Johnstown  flood  had 
spent  itself,  it  left  the  city  not  only  in  need  of  food,  raiment  and 
shelter,  but  the  hundreds  of  sick  and  shocked  people  needed 
immediate  medical  attention,  which  was  clearly  impossible  without 
greater  hospital  facilities  and  a  larger  medical  staff  than  Johns- 
town could  supply.  Some  accommodations  for  the  treatment  of 
the  sick  and  wounded  were  necessary.  We  had  but  one  hospital 
in  the  city,  which  is  a  private  institution  belonging  to  the  Cambria 
Iron  Company,  and  located  on  Prospect  Hill.  It  was  soon  filled 
to  overflowinp-,  and  o-ood  work  was  done  there  under  direction  of 
physicians  from  Altoona  and  Philadelphia.  It  was  soon  apparent 
that  another  hospital  must  be  established,  and,  accordingly,  on 
Saturday  afternoon,  June  ist,  the  Bedford  Street  Hospital  was 
created.  Our  telegraphic  communication  being  destroyed,  a  mes- 
senger was  sent  on  horseback  to  Stoyestown,  by  Dr.  J.  C.  Sheri- 
dan, bearing  messages  to  be  sent  from  there  to  Pittsburgh  for 
hospital  equipments,  consisting  of  cots,  mattresses,  pillows,  medi- 
cines and  other  necessities. 


I  74  THE  FIRST  PATIENT. 

The  first  patient  taken  into  this  hospital  was  recovered  from 
the  wreck  at  daylight  on  Sunday  morning.  Supposing  him  to  be 
dead,  the  carriers  took  him  to  the  Fourth  Ward  Morgue,  where, 
discovering  that  life  was  not  extinct,  we  summoned  a  physician  who 
sent  him  to  the  hospital.  By  the  united  efforts  of  physicians  and 
nurses  he  rallied  and  became  conscious,  but  he  died  the  next  day 
of  congestion  of  the  lungs,  the  result  of  exposure.  The  hospital 
at  this  time  was  placed  under  the  immediate  charge  of  Dr.  Foster, 
of  Pittsburgh.  He  was  early  in  the  morning  assisted  by  Dr. 
White,  of  Connellsville,  and  afterward  by  Dr.  James,  of  Ebensburg. 
The  latter  physician  came  to  the  city  early  on  Saturday  morning, 
and  had  already  done  admirable  work  at  the  Club  House  and  the 
Morrell  Institute,  where  his  services  had  been  demanded.  Later 
in  the  day  other  physicians  arrived,  all  of  whom  rendered  invalu- 
able service. 

By  2  o'clock,  on  Sabbath,  less  than  twenty-four  hours  after  the 
sending  of  Dr.  Sheridan's  order,  the  hospital  equipment  arrived 
from  Pittsburgh.  This  I  am  glad  to  cite  as  one  of  the  striking 
examples  of  the  intelligence  with  which  the  Pittsburgh  Committee, 
so  early  constituted,  recognized  the  necessities  of  the  hour,  and 
supplied  every  hospital  want  with  that  celerity  and  liberality  which 
are  characteristic  of  the  people  of  that  noble  city. 

By  the  time  the  hospital  equipment  arrived,  every  bench  and 
counter,  and  even  the  floor  itself,  was  full  of  sick  and  wounded, 
tvho  were  brought  from  all  parts  of  the  city.  They  were  soon 
made  as  comfortable  as  possible  under  the  circumstances.  There 
was  such  a  constant  demand  upon  the  enduring  powers  of  the 
physicians  that  not  one  of  them  could  bear  up  under  the  strain  for 
many  days  in  succession,  and  consequently  frequent  changes  of 
directors  were  necessary.  Dr.  Foster  having  occasion  to  leave 
the  work,  Dr.  Oldshoe,  of  Pittsburgh,  took  his  place.  He  was  ably 
assisted  by  physicians   from   Pittsburgh,    Connellsville,   Altoona, 


MEDICAL  ORGANIZATION. 


175 


Phillipsburg,  Philadelphia  and  other  places.  Dr.  Oldshoe  worked 
incessantly.  Under  his  intelligent  direction  the  hospital  soon 
assumed  that  peaceful  quiet  which,  with  his  watchful  and  tender 
care,  did  so  much  to  soothe  the  dying  and  to  inspirit  those  who 
were  recovering.  Although  suffering  from  a  fatal  disease  himself, 
Dr.  Oldshoe  neither  ate  nor  slept  until  all  intrusted  to  his  vigi- 
lant care  were  properly  tended  and  made  comfortable.  This 
self-sacrificing  man  remarked,  when  about  to  return  to  Pittsburgh, 
that  his  physical  condition  was  such  that  he  could  not  expect 
lonor  life,  and  that  if  he  had  not  done  all  that  he  mieht  have  done  for 
our  suffering  people,  he  at  least  had  the  consciousness  that  he 
had  done  the  best  he  knew. 

During  Dr.  Oldshoe's  management  a  competent  corps  of 
out-door  physicians  was  organized,  who  responded  promptly  to 
calls  from  all  parts  of  the  city.  Branch  offices  were  also 
established  at  different  points,  and  supplies  furnished  them 
from  Bedford  Street  headquarters,  to  which  Mr.  William  De- 
Wolfe  had  conveyed  from  Pittsburgh  a  liberal  supply  of  drugs. 
About  this  time,  Dr.  Wm.  B.  Lowman,  one  of  our  most  skillful 
resident  physicians,  was  made  Medical  Director  of  all  the  Hos- 
pitals, and  his  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  city  and  its  wants 
greatly  facilitated  the  work. 

Dr.  Oldshoe  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  T.  McCann,  of  Pitts- 
burgh, whose  skillful  management  continued  and  extended  the 
noble  work  of  the  Bedford  Street  Hospital.  Dr.  McCann, 
after  a  few  days'  efficient  service,  was  relieved  by  Dr.  Joseph 
Dixon,  of  Pittsburgh,  who  remained  in  charge  until  affairs  had 
assumed  such  shape  that  the  local  physicians  could  give  the 
necessar)''  attention,  when  those  from  a  distance  withdrew. 
The  great  work  done  by  these  excellent  men  and  their  assist- 
ants deserves  highest  mention,  and  the  Johnstown  people 
will  never  forget  their  aid  and  kindness  during  the  distressing 
experiences  after  the  flood. 


176  WOMEN  WORKERS. 

When  the  visiting  physicians  withdrew,  Dr.  J.  C.  Sheridan, 
of  this  city,  "a  worthy  son  of  a  worthy  sire,"  assumed  charge 
of  the  headquarters  until  the  hospital  closed. 

As  already  intimated,  those  who  preceded  him  rendered 
most  difficult  and  self-sacrificing  services  that  honored  their 
noble  profession  while  they  relieved  the  suffering.  Dr.  Sheridan 
shone  even  among  this  number  for  his  unwearied,  unremunerated 
and  skillful  attention  during  the  days  and  nights  of  the  mourn- 
ful months  succeeding  the  flood.  His  name  must  adorn  the 
annals  of  the  medical  profession  among  those  who  recognize  this 
supreme  law  of  mercy  to-  the  suffering,  and  who  have  generously 
employed  their  skill  in  their  behalf. 

Many  estimable  women  gave  their  services  as  nurses,  and 
aided  very  materially  in  the  good  work,  and  are  entitled  to  the 
highest  praise  and  gratitude  of  the  survivors  and  their  friends. 
Amono-  these  "elect  ladies,"  Miss  Rose  Youngf,  Miss  Kizzie 
Vance,  Miss  Reed,  Miss  Vickroy  and  others,  and  the  Sisters  of  St. 
Joseph's  Convent,  are  deserving  of  honorable  mention.  Miss 
Sallie  Stroup,  since  gone  to  her  reward,  was  also  of  this  number. 

The  Dispensary  in  the  Hospital  was  intelligently  conducted  by 
Charles  Griffith.  His  incessant  attention  to  this,  necessitating 
neglect  of  his  own  affairs,  added  materially  to  his  great  losses 
already  sustained.  When  he  withdrew,  Charles  Young  took 
charge  and  continued  in  the  good  work  until  the  hospital  closed. 

From  June  the  2d  until  July  the  3d,  when  the  hospital  was 
discontinued,  there  were  received  and  treated  over  500  patients. 
When  the  hospital  became  crowded  the  convalescents  were 
sent  to  various  places.  For  some  time,  a  car  load  of  patients 
was  daily  sent  to  Pittsburgh,  where  they  were  distributed  among 
the  hospitals  of  that  city.  Others  were  sent  to  friends  in  the 
country  and  to  neighboring  towns.  Some  were  conveyed  to  each 
of  the  following  cities  :  Cumberland,  Baltimore,   Philadelphia  and 


STATE  BOARD  OF  HEALTH.  I  77 

Boston.  There  were  over  300  surgical  cases.  If  this  seems  to 
be  a  small  number  in  such  an  unspeakable  disaster,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  great  majority  of  the  victims  did  not  survive 
the  flood.  There  were  during  this  time  in  the  out-door  department 
over  3,000  patients,  and  over  5,000  prescriptions  were  filled. 

In  conveying  patients  to  Pittsburgh  and  elsewhere,  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Railroad,  through  Mr.  J.  V.  Patton,  the  efficient 
superintendent,  kindly  furnished  each  day  a  hospital  car,  which,  of 
course,  did  much  to  alleviate  the  suffering  incident  to  such  a 
journey. 


5. THE  WORK  OF  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  HEALTH. 

By  Benjamin  Lee,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  Secretary  and  Executive  Officer. 

"On  the  thirty-first  day  of  May  and  the  first  day  of  June,  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  the  State  Board  of  Health 
of  Pennsylvania  was  holding  one  of  its  Sanitary  Conventions  in 
the  city  of  Pittsburgh. 

"  If  the  Board  had  stationed  a  brass  band  at  the  door  of  the 
hall  and  put  up  a  placard  announcing  that  the  Brown-Sequard 
Elixir  would  be  administered  at  a  dollar  a  head,  no  doubt  the  ses- 
sions of  the  Convention  would  have  been  crowded  to  overflowing 
with  aspirants  for  longevity  and  their  curious  friends;  but  as  it  had 
no  higher  aim  than  to  teach  the  citizens  of  the  two  great  cities 
whose  beautiful  bridges  span  the  Allegheny,  how  they  might  pro- 
long and  bless  their  lives  and  those  of  their  children  by  simple 
attention  to  certain  rules  of  domestic  and  civic  sanitation,  the  at- 
tendance was  extremely  meagre.  It  is  fair  to  say,  however,  that 
what  was  wanting  in  numbers  was  made  up  in  intelligence,  and 
that  th-ough  the  kind  assistance  of  the  enterprising  press  of  the 
city  th''  audience  was  multiplied  a  thousandfold.      Whatever  may 


I  78  THE  BOARD  AROUSED. 

have  been  the  extent  and  character  of  the  labors  of  the  Board  dur- 
ing the  four  months  which  followed — and  which  it  is  proposed  here 
briefly  to  sketch — in  the  Board's  own  estimation,  so  far  as  final  re- 
sults are  concerned,  this  two  days'  educational  work  was  the  more 
important  of  the  two.  For  the  still  diminishing  attendance  of  the 
second  day,  however,  an  unusual  reason  existed.  The  river  had 
risen  suddenly  to  an  unusual  height.  The  bridges  and  banks  were 
covered  with  thousands,  watching  the  immense  masses  of  wreck- 
age that  swept  down  its  seething  surface  ;  there  were  rumors  that 
dead  bodies  had  been  taken  out ;  a  sense  of  intense  uneasiness 
pervaded  the  air ;  railroad  communication  with  the  East  was  cut 
off;  members  feared  that  they  would  be  subjected  to  serious  delay 
and  inconvenience  in  reaching  their  homes.  There  were  vague 
reports  of  loss  of  life,  but  nothing  definite  could  be  ascertained. 

"The  papers  of  the  following  morning,  however,  which  was 
that  of  Sunday,  contained  authentic  intelligence  which  left  no  room 
for  doubt  that  a  calamity  of  most  appalling  magnitude  had  visited 
the  little  mountain  city  of  Johnstown,  and  that  this  calamity  im- 
posed a  grave  and  urgent  responsibility  on  the  State  Board  of 
Health.  An  informal  meeting  of  the  Board  was  hastily  called. 
A  resolution  of  sympathy  with  the  survivors  was  adopted.  The 
entire  quarter's  appropriation  to  the  Board,  amounting  to  the 
paltry  sum  of  ^500,  was  voted  for  the  prosecution  of  sanitary  work 
in  the  flood-swept  region,  and  a  member  of  the  Board,  Professor 
George  G.  Groff,  of  the  Bucknell  University,  was  instructed  to 
accompany  the  Secretary  to  the  scene  of  the  catastrophe,  and 
co-operate  with  him  in  taking  measures  to  prevent  disastrous  con- 
sequences to  the  public  health  from  the  exposure  of  such  immense 
numbers  of  dead  bodies  of  human  beings  and  of  animals  as  were 
reported  to  have  been  destroyed,  as  well  as  from  the  unnatural 
conditions  surrounding  those  who  had  escaped  with  life  alone. 
The  Secretary  desires  to  take  this  public  opportunity  of  testifying 


EN  ROUTE   TO  JOHNSTOWN.  l8l 

to  the  faithfulness  and  zeal  with  which  Dr.  Groff  dischareed  this 
onerous  duty,  and  to  the  wisdom  and  sound  judgment  which  char- 
acterized his  suggestions  in  the  numerous  emergencies  which 
hourly  confronted  us.  It  was  evident  that  whatever  suffering 
there  miofht  be  at  the  scene  of  the  disaster,  the  immediate  obliea- 
tion  resting  on  the  Board  was  to  protect  the  water  supply  of 
the  two  great  cities  of  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  from  the  most 
horrible  of  all  pollutions — that  resulting  from  the  fact  that  hun- 
dreds of  corpses  and  of  carcasses  were  decomposing  in  the  streams 
whence  it  was  drawn.  Accordingly  the  first  stop  was  made  at 
Nineveh,  about  nine  miles  below  Johnstown,  where  162  dead  bodies 
were  found  awaiting  identification  and  transportation,  and  num- 
bers more  were  being  hourly  brought  in.  Steps  were  here  taken 
to  secure  by  telegraph  the  immediate  and  full  co-operation  of  the 
authorities  of  all  the  counties  bordering  on  the  streams  implicated, 
in  the  work  of  reclaiming  the  dead  and  of  burning  carcasses  and 
debris.  Early  the  following  morning  the  swollen  Conemaugh 
was  crossed  in  a  skiff,  and  arrangements  were  made  for  facilitating 
the  identification  and  early  burial  of  the  twenty-five  or  thirty 
bodies  which  had  been  recovered  on  that  side  of  the  river.  We 
returned  by  the  first  train  that  passed  up  in  the  morning  and 
were  carried  to  Morrellville,  whence  we  walked  to  Johnstown. 

"  Putting  ourselves  in  communication  with  Adjutant-General 
D.  H.  Hastings,  who  had  assumed  command  of  the  volunteer  relief 
movement,  and  whom  we  had  apprised  of  our  coming,  by  wire,  the 
night  before,  we  obtained  passes  from  Sheriff  Steinman,  were  ferried 
over  the  Conemaugh,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  local  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Moxham  was  the  efficient 
chairman.  We  notified  him  that  the  Board  would  assume  entire 
control  of  all  sanitary  operations,  and  requested  that  five  thousand 
pounds  of  copperas  and  two  thousand  five  hundred  pounds  of 
chloride  of  lime  should  be  at  once  ordered  from  Pittsburgh.     The 


I  8 2  ORGANIZA  TION  FOR  SAFETY. 

chemist  of  the  Woodvale  Chemical  Works,  which  had  fortunately 
escaped  the  flood,  had  already  given  the  secretary  carte  blanche  to 
procure  all  the  copperas  that  might  be  needed,  but  the  problem  was 
to  oret  it,  there  beinof  no  available  teams  and  the  road  beinsf  in  ereat 
measure  washed  away.  The  Secretary  also  announced  the  presence 
of  the  Board  to  Mr.  Horrell,  the  Burgess  of  Johnstown,  and  to  the 
Rev.  David  J.  Beale,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  Morgue  in  the 
Fourth  Ward  school-house  and  who  was  officially  designated  to  the 
general  supervision  of  that  branch  of  the  work.  Chaotic  as  the 
condition  still  was,  it  was  a  matter  of  surprise  that  within  twenty- 
four  hours  after  locomotion  had  become  possible,  following  the  most 
crushing  and  paralyzing  of  modern  catastrophes,  so  much  of  system 
had  been  introduced.  A  local  police  force  was  on  duty,  armed  to 
some  extent  with  shot-guns,  but  principally  with  base-ball  clubs  ob- 
tained from  the  wreck  of  a  store.  Detailed  forces  were  working 
day  and  night  reclaiming  the  dead;  several  commissaries  were 
supplying  provisions  and  clothing  with  generous  hands — as  was 
perfectly  proper  in  such  an  emergency,  not  with  scrutinizing  eyes — 
to  famishing  and  shivering  crowds,  principally  of  women  and 
children.  The  local  committee  had  its  sub-committees  to  attend 
to  each  branch  of  the  work.  I  doubt  if  in  any  other  country  in 
the  world  such  a  spectacle  of  prompt  organization,  in  the  face  of 
overwhelming  disaster,  could  have  been  witnessed. 

"A  survey  of  the  situation  showed  that  the  Board  was  con- 
fronted by  a  task  of  gigantic  dimensions.  Johnstown  proper  was 
partly  a  lake,  partly  several  small  streams,  partly  a  vast  sandy 
plain,  and  partly  clusters  of  more  or  less  ruined  houses.  Around 
among,  between,  inside  and  on  top  of  these  houses,  wherever  the 
rushing  torrent  had  been  checked,  were  piled  masses  of  wreckage  ; 
trunks  of  mighty  trees,  household  furniture,  houses  whole  and  in 
fragments,  bridges,  locomotives  and  railroad  cars,  hundreds  of 
tons  of  mud  and  gravel.     Thickly  strewn  through  it  all  were  hun- 


IVJiE  TCHED  R OADS.  I  8 3 

dreds  of  corpses  and  carcasses.     The  only  communication  between 
this   section  and    the   Pennsylvania   Railroad  and    the  village  of 
Peelorville  on  the  north,  and  Kernville  on  the  south,  was  across 
swollen  torrents  in  skiffs,  which  required  constant  bailing  to  keep 
them  above  water.     From  the  stone  bridge  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Road,  for  a  distance  of  half  a  mile,  no  river  could  be  seen,  simply 
a  dense  mass  of  drift  from  twenty  to  fifty  feet  deep,  apparently 
inextricable,  bound  together  with  miles  of  wire,  here  blazing  and 
there  smoldering,  and  enveloping  the  bridge  in  a  cloud  of  nau- 
seating vapor  and  smoke,  giving  unmistakable  evidence  of  the 
presence  of  burning  flesh.     Not  a  thoroughfare  was  passable  for  a 
team,  and  very  few  for  a  horse.     Not  only  was  the  work  immense, 
but  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its  accomplishment  were  such  as 
can  scarcely  be  comprehended  by  those  who  did  not  see  them. 
On  the  first  day  little  could  be  done  beyond  a  thorough  survey  of 
the  town  and  study  of  the  situation.     Locomotion  was  difficult,  the 
mud  deep,  the  streets  obstructed  often  to  the  roofs  of  houses,  the  rain 
incessant.     On  the  second  day,  however,  the  secretary  was  fortunate 
in  meeting  his  friend.  Dr.  Webster  Lowman,  of  Johnstown,  who  in- 
troduced him  to  Dr.  W.  E.  Matthews,  Chairman  of  the  Sanitary 
Committee,  appointed  at  a  meeting  of  the  surviving  physicians  of 
the  place.     Notwithstanding  Dr.  Matthews  was   suffering  from  a 
fracture  of  the  ribs,  he  expressed  his  willingness  to  devote  himself 
entirely  to  the  work  of  the  Board.     He  was  accordingly  appointed 
chief  deputy  inspector,  with  instructions  to  enroll  a  sanitary  corps, 
to  consist  of  deputy  inspectors  and  laborers,  and  to  select  at  once 
a  depot  for  disinfectants.     The  headquarters  of  the  Board  were 
temporarily  established  in  the  same  room  with  the  local  committee, 
the  dining-room  of  the  only  tavern  not  swept  away  by  the  flood,  and 
known  as  the  Fourth  Ward  Hotel.     The  advantage  of  this  situa- 
tion consisted  in  the  opportunity  for  immediate  and  constant  com- 
munication with  the  local  committees,  each  of  which  had  its  table 


184  NATIONAL  AID. 

in  the  room,  and  use  of  telegraphic  faciHties  and  messenger  ser- 
vice. The  noise  and  confusion  which  reigned  here,  however,  were 
by  no  means  conducive  to  deHberate  judgment  and  judicious  ar- 
rangement of  business,  and  as  soon  as  possible  a  room  was  secured 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  (Adam  Street),  which  continued 
to  be  the  office  of  the  Board  until  it  was  provided  with  a  com- 
modious building  of  its  own  in  the  centre  of  the  town  by  the  kind 
ness  of  the  Finance  Committee.  The  organization  of  the  sanitary 
corps  was  at  first  almost  entirely  voluntary.  A  number  of  physi- 
cians who  had  hastened  to  the  stricken  town  from  all  parts  of 
Pennsylvania  and  neighboring  States  to  proffer  their  services  to 
the  sick  and  injured,  finding  that  they  were  not  needed  in  that 
capacity,  offered  them  to  the  Board.  They  did  yeoman's  service 
in  the  discovery  of  the  dead,  and  in  dragging  out  and  burning  dead 
animals.  The  exposing  and  exhausting  character  of  this  labor 
cannot  be  overstated  any  more  than  its  importance  can  be  over- 
estimated. Amonof  those  who  thus  disting-uished  themselves  and 
to  whom  Johnstown  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  were  Dr.  Fussell,  of 
Manayunk  ;  Dr.  Smith,  of  Philadelphia ;  Dr.  Marvell,  of  Atlantic 
City  ;  Dr.  McGrew,  Dr.  Philips,  and  others. 

"  Each  of  these  gentlemen  was  placed  in  charge  of  a  gang  of 
laborers,  and  accomplished  much  good.  On  the  same  day  that 
this  organization  was  effected  the  Secretary  received  the  following 
telegram  from  Dr.  John  B.  Hamilton,  Supervising  Surgeon 
General  of  the  United  States  Marine  Hospital  Service  : 

"'Washington,  D.  C,  June  4th,  iSSg.^Dr.  Benjamin  Lee,  Sec- 
retary State  Board  of  Health,  Johnstown : — The  Bureau  is  ready 
to  render  any  aid  in  its  power,  if  you  desire  it.  I  have  ordered 
Dr.  Carrington  from  Pittsburgh,  and  he  will  confer  with  you. 
You  may  retain  him  for  a  few  days  if  you  need  his  services  ; 
otherwise  he  will  regain  his  station  after  reporting. 

Hamilton,  Sui^geo7i  General! 


SANITAR  Y  POLICE.  1 85 

"  Dr.  Carrington  reported  the  day  following,  and  was  at  once 
put  on  duty  in  charge  of  a  corps  of  disinfectors,  proving  himself  a 
most  efficient  aid.  In  reply  to  Surgeon  General  Hamilton's  offer 
of  aid  a  request  was  made  for  disinfectants,  and  all  that  were 
available  in  Washington  were  at  once  forwarded,  as  well  as  a  large 
consignment  of  copperas  from  Baltimore.  In  a  subsequent  com-, 
munication  Surgeon  General  Hamilton  mentioned  the  deep 
interest  taken  by  President  Harrison  in  the  work  of  the  Board,  and 
a  suggestion  by  the  latter  that  deportation  of  women  and  children,  so 
far  as  practicable,  would  be  expedient.  This  step  was  urged  by  the 
Board  in  one  of  its  official  bulletins,  and  with  evident  good  results. 

"In  the  latter  part  of  the  same  week  Dr.  Hamilton  visited 
Johnstown  personally  and  made  many  valuable  suggestions  for 
the  organization  of  the  force  and  the  prosecution  of  the  work. 

"  Co-incidently  with  the  establishment  of  the  sanitary  corps  a 
communication  was  addressed  to  Governor  Beaver,  describing  the 
condition,  detailing  the  steps  which  had  already  been  taken,  and 
setting  forth  the  greatness  of  the  undertaking  and  the  necessity  for 
ample  pecuniary  provision.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  all  lines  of  com- 
munication were  interrupted,  this  information  took  some  time  to 
reach  him. 

"A  most  acceptable  and  efficient  addition  to  our  force  arrived 
the  day  following,  a  large  detail  of  sanitary  police  from  Pittsburgh, 
under  the  charge  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Health  Baker,  and 
of  a  similar  smaller  squad  from  Allegheny,  sent  with  instructions 
from  Health  Officer  Madley. 

"These  men  were  too  valuable  of  course  to  be  employed  as 
common  laborers.  A  few  of  them  were  set  to  work  as  disin- 
fectors under  Dr.  Carrington.  The  majority  were  detailed  to 
make  a  house-to-house  inspection  of  inhabited  houses,  with  in- 
structions to  report  all  foul  accumulations  and  all  cases  of  sick- 
ness, to  inform  the  occupants  how  to  dispose  of  offensive  material, 


1  86  DISINFECTANTS  EMPL  O  YED. 

and  where  to  apply  for  disinfectants.  As  soon  as  it  could  be 
obtained,  a  cart  accompanied  those  forces  with  disinfectants  for 
distribution.  The  Pittsburgh  force  was  retained  for  this  purpose 
in  Johnstown,  and  the  Allegheny  force  was  sent  over  to  Kern- 
ville,  on  the  south  side  of  Stony  Creek  River.  The  service 
rendered  by  these  trained  sanitary  officers  was  most  timely,  and 
was  subsequently  recognized  by  the  Board  in  an  appropriate 
resolution  of  thanks.  The  followinof  incident  will  indicate  the 
difficulties  under  which  work  was  accomplished  during  this  early 
period  of  the  operations.  The  first  disinfectant  available  was 
copperas.  To  use  this  in  many  places  it  was  necessary  to  dissolve 
it  in  water,  and  to  have  vessels  of  some  kind  from  which  to 
sprinkle  it.  But  not  a  utensil  of  any  kind  could  be  found.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  Secretary,  accompanied  by  Dr.  Carrington  with  his 
squad  of  Pittsburgh  disinfectors,  clambered  over  the  wreckage  on 
Main  Street,  often  up  to  the  third  story  windows,  and  made  a 
descent  on  wrecked  stores  here  and  there  until  they  succeeded  in 
finding  a  dozen  tin  coffee  pots,  more  or  less  buried  in  mud,  half 
a  dozen  watering  pots  of  different  sizes  and  a  wash  boiler. 
Supplied  with  these,  they  returned  in  triumph,  the  names  of  the 
owners  of  the  stores  and  of  the  articles  taken  from  each  having 
been  carefully  noted.  The  wash  boiler  was  filled  from  one  of  the 
hydrants  which  were  running  freely  all  over  the  town,  and  placed 
upon  a  fire  in  which  horses  were  burning,  A  solution  was  soon 
made  and  applied  to  their  comrades,  deeply  buried  in  the  debris, 
whose  carcasses  were  an  impediment  to  the  progress  of  the  work. 
"The  condition  of  the  rivers  as  a  source  of  water-supply  still 
caused  the  Board  so  much  anxiety  that,  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
6th  of  June,  the  Secretary,  after  a  careful  inspection  of  the  drift  at 
the  stone  bridge,  which  satisfied  him  of  the  impossibility  of  remov- 
ing it  by  the  means  and  force  then  available,  and  also  of  the  abso- 
lute   necessity    of   such    removal    from    sanitary    considerations, 


DEBRIS  AT  THE  BRIDGE.  '  1 87 

proceeded  to  Pittsburgh,  and  on  the  following  day  despatched  a 
gang  of  wreckers,  consisting  of  two  squads  with  a  foreman  over 
each  and  a  superintendent,  to  proceed  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kis- 
kiminitas,  and  carefully  patrol  both  banks  of  that  stream  and  of 
the  Conemaugh  up  to  Johnstown,  removing  and  reclaiming  all 
dead  bodies  and  burning  all  dead  animals  and  all  drift  heaps  which 
could  not  be  dragged  apart.  A  similar  expedition  was  organized 
and  sent  down  the  Ohio  as  far  as  the  State  line  on  the  steamer 
*■  Tide.'  On  the  same  day  a  telegram  was  sent  to  Governor 
Beaver,  stating  that  4,000  men  were  needed  to  work  on  the  drift 
on  the  stone  bridge.  A  written  communication  was  also  ad- 
dressed to  him,  accurately  describing  the  condition  at  Johnstown 
and  along  the  rivers,  declaring,  in  the  name  of  the  Board,  such  a 
condition  to  be  a  nuisance  prejudicial  to  the  public  health.  It 
represented  the  nuisances  beyond  the  power  of  the  local  author- 
ities to  remove,  and  requested  him  at  once,  as  Chief  Executive  of 
the  Commonwealth,  to  employ  such  force  as  might  be  necessary 
for  the  work. 

"When  the  surviving  resident  physicians  were  in  a  condition 
to  devote  time  and  service  to  others  than  their  own  families  they 
were  assigned  places  on  the  Sanitary  Corps,  and  the  volunteers 
from  a  distance  were  reluctantly  permitted  to  retire. 

"Dr.  Wagoner  well  says  in  one  of  his  reports:  'These 
gentlemen  in  leaving  took  with  them  the  respect  and  gratitude  of 
all  who  were  benefited  by  their  labors,' 

"Other  gentlemen  from  a  distance,  who  rendered  very  efficient 
aid  during  the  early  period,  were  Dr.  Spencer  M.  Free,  Medical 
Inspector  to  the  Board  for  the  Western  Slope  District,  who  was 
temporarily  placed  in  charge  of  the  entire  region  below  the  stone 
bridge,  at  that  time  almost  cut  off  from  communication  with 
Johnstown,  and  Dr.  R.  Lowry  Tibbet,  Medical  Inspector  for  the 
Cumberland,  who  did  admirable  work  in  inspecting  the  more  in- 


1 88  OFFICIAL  INSPECTIONS. 

accessible  districts  and  reporting  their  needs.  The  Board  were 
also  cheered  by  the  presence  of  the  Secretary  of  the  State  Board 
of  Health  of  Ohio,  Dr.  C.  O.  Probst,  who  in  company  with  Dr. 
Carring-ton  undertook  the  somewhat  difficult  task  of  inspecting 
the  three  sources  of  the  water-supply  of  Johnstown  among  the 
mountains. 

"The  entire  region,  including  the  outlying  boroughs  as  far  up 
the  Conemaugh  as  South  Fork,  about  nine  miles  to  the  eastward, 
up  the  Stony  Creek  to  Moxham,  two  miles  to  the  southward,  and 
down  the  Conemaugh  to  Nineveh,  nine  miles  to  the  westward, 
was  now  divided  into  twelve  districts,  to  each  one  of  which  an 
inspector  was  assigned. 

"Each  inspector  was  required  to  make  a  daily  round  of  his 
territory  and  see  that  the  different  gangs  of  men,  each  under  its 
foreman,  were  working  faithfully  and  judiciously;  to  direct  the  im- 
mediate removal  of  all  decaying  animal  or  vegetable  matter,  to 
indicate  where  disinfectants  were  especially  needed,  and  to  instruct 
the  people  how  to  use  them  in  cellars,  yards  and  outhouses.  At 
the  end  of  each  day  a  written  report  was  made  by  each,  including 
any  new  cases  of  sickness  which  might  have  been  discovered.  On 
these  reports  the  work  of  the  day  following  was  laid  out  and 
instructions  given  before  the  men  started  for  work.  An  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  health  of  the  entire  valley  was  therefore  always 
possessed  by  the  Board. 

"  Each  of  these  districts  had  its  office  and  depot  for  disinfect- 
ants. In  regard  to  the  use  of  the  latter,  Dr.  Matthews  says  in  his  re- 
port to  the  Secretary:  'The  distribution  of  disinfectants  was  con- 
ducted with  proper  system.  At  first,  stations  were  established  and 
placards  placed  throughout  the  valley,  informing  the  people  that  they 
would  be  furnished  with  disinfectants  free  of  cost.  The  man  in 
charge  of  a  disinfecting  station  carefully  instructed  the  people  in 
the  use  of  whatever  was  gfiven  them.' 


CLEANING  UP  THE  RUINS. 


191 


"Sub-Stations  were  also  established  in  large  districts,  where 
disinfectants  were  easily  obtained.  Deputy  Medical  Inspector 
Wagoner,  whose  district  was  the  large  and  crowded  portion  of  the 
town  known  as  Kernville,  thus  reports  :  'Large  quantities  of  disin- 
fectants were  taken  away  by  the  people  and  used,  and  still  larger 
quantities  were  distributed  by  the  office  from  house  to  house  at 
regular  intervals.  During  the  entire  time  the  office  was  open,  one 
gang  of  laborers  was  employed  in  sprinkling  disinfectants  over  the 
entire  district.  Fifteen  supply  stations  were  established  and  from 
these  they  worked  so  that  they  covered  the  entire  district  twice  a 
week.  A  gang  was  also  detailed  to  gather  up  and  burn  the  bedding, 
garments  and  carpets  which  had  been  ruined  by  the  water  and 
were  thickly  scattered  throughout  the  entire  wreck.  An  immense 
quantity  of  this  material  was  destroyed.  Each  day's  work  averaged 
twelve  wagon,  loads.'  This  statement  is  measurably  true  of  all  the 
other  districts,  although  it  is  no  disparagement  to  say  that  among 
many  earnest  workers  Dr.  Wagoner  was  conspicuous  for  the  zeal, 
fidelity  and  sound  judgment  with  which  his  work  was  conducted. 
While  on  the  subject  of  disinfectants  it  may  not  be  uninteresting 
to  interrupt  the  thread  of  the  narrative  and  state  the  amount  of 
disinfectants  received  by  the  Board.  Other  consignments  un- 
doubtedly came  to  Johnstown,  which  never  reached  our  office. 
These  figures  represent  only  what  have  been  accounted  for  and 
acknowledged : 

/:^,ooo  barrels  quick-lime. 

500  barrels  chloride  of  lime. 
1,700  bottles  bromine. 
no  barrels  Bullen's  Disinfectant. 
100  tons  copperas. 
100  gallons  carbolic  acid. 

3  carboys  muriatic  acid. 
40  gallons  nitric  acid. 


192  D ONA  TIONS  OF  DISINFECTANTS. 

180  barrels  rosin. 
200  barrels  pine  tar. 
73  barrels  pitch. 
5  barrels  liquid  Phenyle. 
15  barrels  Sanitas. 
3  barrels  Phenique. 
100  kegs  Utopia. 

10  carboys  embalming  fluid. 
720  bottles  sod.  hypochlorite. 
700  bottles  Piatt's  chlorides. 
1 16  pounds  corrosive  sublimate. 
100  Werther's  Disinfectant. 
50  bottles  Pennsylvania  R.  R.  Co.'s  disinfectant. 
100  bottles  Purity. 
100  bottles  bromo-chloralum. 
A  cargo  of  Quibells  Brothers'    Disinfectant,  valued   at  five 
hundred  pounds  sterling  (^2,500). 

"All  of  the  above  were  donations,  with  the  exception  of  100 
barrels  Bullen's  Disinfectant,  the  bromine  and  a  portion  of  the 
copperas.  The  rosin  and  tar,  gifts  of  citizens  of  Wilmington,  N.  C, 
were  used  in  cremating  dead  animals,  and  proved  a  most  accept- 
able contribution,  not  only  greatly  facilitating  combustion,  but  also 
entirely  neutralizing  the  foul  odors,  while  the  tar  was  a  great  as- 
sistance in  burning  obstinate  stumps  and  roots.  Bullen's  Disin- 
fectant was  used  principally  in  the  morgues.  The  donation 
of  ten  barrels,  which  arrived  the  day  after  the  flood,  proved  of 
great  service,  from  the  fact  that  it  was  all  ready  for  use,  which  at 
a  time  when  there  were  absolutely  no  utensils  of  any  kind  for 
mixing  or  dissolving  chemicals  was  a  matter  of  great  importance. 

"  The  proprietary  disinfectants  generally,  being  in  comparatively 
small  packages,  easily  handled  and  accompanied  by  printed  direc- 
tions, were  given  to  the  people  for  home  use,  with  very  good 
results.     The  great  dependence  of  our  disinfectors,  where  putres- 


IIOJV  WORK  WAS  DONE. 


193 


cent  masses  and  intensely  foul  cellars  and  privies  required  heroic 
treatment,  however,  was  bromine.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  the 
work  could  have  proceeded  without  it  at  some  points.  Ouibell's 
Disinfectant  was  used  extensively  in  a  street-sprinkler  for  laying 
the  dust,  which  it  at  the  same  time  deodorized,  leaving  a  peculiar 
freshness  in  the  air.  "Sanitas"  was  used  in  the  same  way  with 
similar  results.  The  chloride  of  lime,  quick-lime  and  copperas 
were  strewn  thickly  over  surfaces  from  which  filth  had  been  re- 
moved, in  cellars  and  on  the  dumped  filth.  Carbolic  acid  was  also 
used  effectively  over  large  surfaces  and  in  closets.  It  may  be  safely 
said  that  disinfection  was  never  so  thoroughly  put  to  the  test  before, 
and  that  it  came  out  of  the  test  triumphantly. 

"  Of  the  condition  which  confronted  us  Inspector  Matthews 
says:  '  The  homes  that  were  not  swept  away  were  left  in  the  most 
insanitary  condition  imaginable.  The  flood  water  was  heavily 
charged  with  every  kind  of  filth,  and  whatever  this  water  touched 
it  contaminated.  As  a  result,  every  house  in  the  flooded  district 
was  filled,  in  most  cases  to  the  second  floor,  with  most  offensive 
matter.  There  was  not  a  place  which  the  flood  touched  where  a 
man  could  lay  his  head  with  safety.' 

"  Inspector  Wagoner,  after  describing  the  limits  of  his  district, 
says :  '  After  the  waters  subsided,  this  extensive  district  was 
covered  with  a  compact  mass  of  debris,  under  which  lay  scores  of 
dead  in  the  slum  and  filth  that  fell  from  the  burdened  waters;' 
and  yet  the  same  gentleman  is  able,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  report, 
to  bear  this  gratifying  testimony  : 

'"With  the  concentration  of  2,500  people  into  380  houses,  all 
subjected  to  intense  mental  strain  by  reason  of  the  calamity  and 
the  radical  changes  in  their  habits  of  life,  it  is  very  gratifying  to 
know  that  during  the  continuance  of  the  Board's  operations  not  a 
case  of  infectious  disease  developed  in  the  district  which  could  be 
attributed  to  bad  sanitary  conditions.'     During  the  first  ten  days 


194 


THE   WORKING  FORCE. 


following  the  flood,  Johnstown  was  favored  with  low  temperature 
clouded  skies  and  frequent  rains.  These,  while  they  produced 
much  discomfort  and  gave  rise  to  a  certain  amount  of  rheumatism 
and  pneumonia,  were  of  great  advantage  in  delaying  decomposi- 
tion. As  soon,  however,  as  a  hot  sun  developed  the  germs  of 
putrefaction  and  the  large  force,  employed  by  the  Pittsburgh  Relief 
Committee  and  subsequently  by  the  State,  began  to  uncover 
numerous  houses,  cellars  and  yards,  reeking  with  filth  and  often 
containing  dead  bodies  and  carcasses  even  in  parlors  and  bed- 
rooms, the  necessity  for  a  rapid  enlargement  of  the  purely  sanitary 
work  became  manifest,  if  pestilence  was  to  be  averted.  New  men 
were  therefore  daily  enrolled  until  at  one  time  the  entire  force 
numbered  285.  This  was  the  strength  of  the  corps  for  about  two 
weeks,  when  it  became  possible  to  begin  to  reduce  the  number  of 
inspectors  as  well  as  of  workmen,  so  that  on  the  9th  of  July  the 
roster  was  as  follows  : 

Five  medical  inspectors. 
Seven  clerks. 
Eleven  foremen. 
Four  cooks. 
Six  messengers. 

One  hundred  and  twenty  laborers. 
The  teams  at  work  were  as  follows : 
Five  two-horse  teams. 
Two  one-horse  teams. 
Eighteen  carts. 
Three  saddle  horses. 

"The  Board  built  its  own  barracks  and  stable,  and,  as  soon  a^ 
communications  were  opened,  furnished  its  own  commissariat.  At 
first  it  was  of  course  compelled,  like  all  other  bodies,  to  depend 
upon  the  charity  of  the  relief  commissaries  to  feed  its  men. 
Other  objects  to  which  special  details  of  men  were  assigned  were  : 


REMOVING  THE   WRECKAGE.  I  95 

"The  collection  and  destruction  of  garbage.  To  such  an 
extent  did  the  accumulation  of  filth  of  this  nature  prevail  around 
the  laborers'  camps  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  appoint  a 
special  Inspector  of  Camps.  This  duty  was  conscientiously  per- 
formed by  Dr.  C.  Sheridan. 

"The  construction  of  public  latrines  and  their  daily  disinfec- 
tion. Seventy-five  of  these  necessary  adjuncts  to  a  civilized 
community  were  provided  and  cared  for. 

"The  cleaning  of  offensive  cellars,  more  than  two  hundred  of 
which  were  excavated  by  our  men.  Subsequently  the  State  con- 
tractors performed  this  duty  ;  but  in  all  cases  the  sanitary  corps 
was  called  upon  to  disinfect,  both  during  and  after  excavation. 
The  entire  number  of  cellars  thus  treated  has  probably  been 
upwards  of  twelve  hundred. 

"  In  response  to  the  declaration  of  nuisance  and  request  for 
means  to  abate  it,  Governor  Beaver,  who  was  then  officially  visit- 
ing the  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  returned  to  Harris- 
burg  and  conferred  with  the  financial  officers  of  the  State.  He 
came  from  there  to  Johnstown,  and,  after  a  careful  survey  of  the 
situation,  decided  to  place  the  entire  work  of  removal  of  wreckage 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Board.  This  was  done  with  little 
delay,  the  Relief  Committee  withdrawing  its  forces  on  the  tenth  day 
of  June.  The  day  following  Adjutant-General  Hastings  reported 
for  instructions  to  the  Secretary.  At  frequent  intervals  an  inspec- 
tion of  the  entire  territory  was  made  by  General  Hastings,  Colonel 
H.  T.  Douglass,  the  Chief  Engineer  in  charge,  and  the  Secretary, 
and  the  course  of  operations  decided  upon.  The  relations  of  these 
officers  to  the  Board  were  of  the  most  friendly  nature,  and  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  the  Secretary  to  have  an  opportunity  of  thus  publicly 
acknowledging  their  unfailing  courtesy,  and  their  readiness  to 
comply  with  his  suggestions.  With  not  less  justice  can  the  same 
recognition  be  made  of  the  ready  and  efficient  services  of  Captain 


196  A  MO  UNT  OF  REFUSE. 

George  C.  Hamilton,  who,  on  the  withdrawal  of  General  Hastings 
and  the  reduction  of  the  force,  on  the  eighth  day  of  July,  assumed 
the  position  of  Chief  Engineer  in  charge.  Indeed,  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  may  well  be  proud  of  a  National  Guard  which,  at  a 
moment's  notice,  could  place  in  the  field  such  officers  and  such 
men  as  prosecuted  the  work  and  kept  the  peace  at  Johnstown, 
under  circumstances  demanding  so  unusual  a  degree  of  prudence, 
judgment,  scientific  attainment  and  Christian  forbearance. 

"  Independently  of  their  official  connection  with  the  Board  as 
inspectors,  the  physicians  of  Johnstown  were  ever  ready  to  aid  it 
by  their  counsel  both  as  individuals  and  through  associate  action 
in  the  County  Medical  Society.  It  was  owing  to  their  advice  that, 
at  as  early  a  moment  as  possible,  the  deposits  which  were  removed 
from  the  streets  and  yards  were  carted  to  the  point  below  the 
town  instead  of  being  dumped  over  the  river-bank.  An  idea  of 
the  immense  amount  of  this  material  thus  removed  may  be  gained 
when  it  is  said  that  the  level  of  this  entire  area,  covering  many 
acres,  has  been  raised  at  least  fifteen  feet. 

"  The  first  necessity  of  the  people  of  Johnstown,  like  ship- 
wrecked sailors  on  a  desert  island,  when  they  found  themselves  still 
living  after  the  bewildering  catastrophe,  was  food.  This  the  volun- 
teer relief  committees,  and  notably  that  of  Altoona,  among  the  first 
in  the  field,  generously  supplied.  The  second  was  shelter.  This 
want  was  attempted  to  be  met  by  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Commission, 
who  ordered  ready-made  houses  from  Chicago.  The  first  speci- 
mens of  these  which  arrived  proved  to  be  simply  little  shelters 
intended  for  the  use  of  sportsmen  during  the  summer,  and,  both 
on  account  of  their  diminutive  size  and  their  insufficient  protec- 
tion against  inclement  weather,  the  Secretary  felt  compelled  to 
protest  against  their  adoption  as  homes  for  families.  A  larger 
and  more  substantial  pattern  soon  followed,  and,  by  placing 
a  large  and  a  small   one   together,   a   tolerably  comfortable  tem- 


GRA  VE  PROBLEMS. 


197 


porary  dwelling'  was  arranged.  This,  however,  was  evidendy 
capable  of  accommodadng  only  a  very  small  family,  and  the 
Relief  Commission  dierefore  authorized  the  construction  of  a 
larger  two-story  house  to  accommodate  households  in  which 
there  were  several  children.  Subsequently,  Miss  Clara  Barton,  the 
indefatigable  head  of  the  National  Red  Cross  Association,  pro- 
posed the  erection  of  several  large  boarding-houses  in  which 
families  and  women  might  have  privacy  and  protection.  But  the 
proposal  to  erect  dwellings  of  any  kind  at  once  brought  the 
Board  face  to  face  with  the  question :  '  How  far  will  it  be  safe 
for  families  to  occupy  houses  placed  upon  this  filth-saturated 
soil  ? '  At  first  the  Secretary  felt  it  his  duty  to  taboo  the  entire 
flooded  district  of  Johnstown  proper,  including  a  large  portion 
of  Kernville.  Little  by  little  the  restricted  regions  were  nar- 
rowed, but  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  August  that  it  was 
felt  to  be  wise  to  allow  habitations  to  be  placed  indiscriminately 
on  former  foundations  or  house-lots.  This  fact  has  been  alluded  to 
in  order  to  correct  an  impression  which  seems  to  have  prevailed 
that  the  people  of  Johnstown  were  themselves  unnecessarily  tardy 
and  unenterprising  in  the  matter  of  rebuilding.  Another  cause, 
and  an  entirely  reasonable  one,  for  a  certain  amount  of  hesitancy 
in  erecting  houses  on  the  plateau  between  the  rivers,  has  been  the 
well-founded  apprehension  that  the  elevation  of  the  river-beds  by 
flood-deposits  would  render  this  district  liable  to  be  overflowed 
by  every  slight  rise  in  the  streams.  As  a  natural  sequence  to  this 
came  the  susfgrestion  that  an  official  survev  mio-ht  lead  to  the  es- 
tablishment  of  a  new  grade  for  this  entire  portion  of  the  city,  which 
would  place  a  building  erected  on  the  old  level  at  a  disadvantage. 
The  importance  of  these  grave  engineering  problems  cannot  be 
overestimated,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  General  Government 
will  recognize  the  duty  of  attempting  their  solution. 

"  With  the  double  purpose  of  giving  the  people  information  as 


I  98  HOUSE-TO-HOUSE  INSPECTION. 

to  the  precautions  to  be  observed  in  order  to  preserve  their  health 
amid  the  trying  circumstances  which  surrounded  them,  and  of 
allaying  the  apprehensions  excited  both  in  Johnstown  and  at  a 
distance  by  the  reckless  misrepresentations  of  irresponsible  news- 
mongers as  to  the  prevalence  of  pestilential  disease,  bulletins 
were  frequently  issued  and  circulars  distributed.  It  is  estimated 
that  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  thousand  pages  of  printed  matter 
were  thus  disseminated  through  the  valley,  in  addition  to  the  wide 
circulation  given  many  of  these  documents  by  the  daily  press  of 
the  place.  In  order  to  be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  exact 
state  of  the  health  of  the  people,  and  of  the  conditions  under  which 
they  were  living,  a  sanitary  survey  was  made  of  all  the  boroughs 
from  South  Fork  to  Nineveh,  according  to  a  form  proposed  by 
Professor  GrofT,  which  recorded  the  number  of  rooms  in  each 
house,  how  many  families  and  how  many  individuals  were  living  in 
it,  how  many  of  these  were  sick,  the  character  of  the  drainage,  and 
many  other  points  bearing  on  their  hygienic  needs.  In  addition  to 
this,  blank  forms  for  a  daily  report  were  sent  to  each  hospital  and 
each  physician,  on  which  return  was  made  every  evening  of  the 
number  of  cases  under  treatment,  of  new  cases,  of  the  nature  of 
the  diseases  under  which  they  were  suffering,  and  of  deaths.  The 
Board  was,  therefore,  always  in  possession  of  accurate  information 
as  to  the  prevalence  or  absence  of  epidemic  disease.  The  writer 
may  perhaps  be  pardoned  for  closing  this  description  of  the  work 
accomplished  by  the  State  in  the  interest  of  the  public  health  at 
Johnstown  with  the  introduction  of  two  personal  allusions,  which 
have  a  certain  value  illustrative  of  the  history  of  the  flood. 

"  Wandering  along  Prospect  Hill  on  the  evening  of  the  day  of 
his  arrival,  weary  wet,  and  hungry,  and,  like  many  others,  without 
a  place  where  to  lay  his  head,  he  was  hailed  from  the  porch  of 
one  of  the  trim  little  cottages  which  line  the  front  street  with  an 
invitation  to  enter.     An  appetizing  odor  of  frying  ham   enforced 


AMONG   THE  REFUGEES.  20I 

the  hospitable  invitation  which,  needless  to  say,  was  cheerfully 
accepted.  The  house  was  filled  with  a  strangely  composed  com- 
pany. Two  or  three  rescued  women,  pitiably  pale,  and  with  eyes 
ghastly  at  the  flood-horror,  the  kind  hostess  with  babe  in  arms 
and  a  little  one  clinging  to  her  skirts,  a  divine,  a  physician,  a  law- 
yer, two  or  three  merchants,  all  members  of  the  noble  Altoona 
Relief  Committee,  with  a  brave  woman,  an  attachee  of  the  same 
energetic  and  devoted  body.  The  little  dining-room  was  too 
small  to  hold  them  all ;  so,  having  supped  in  squads,  they  assem- 
bled on  the  porch.  And  there,  looking  down  on  the  scene  of 
total  desolation  at  their  feet,  which  three  days  before  was  a  flour- 
ishing city — a  scene  part  flood,  part  desert-waste,  part  ruin  and 
wreck  fitfully  lighted  up  by  the  colossal  funeral  pyre  at  the  stone 
bridge,  by  the  numerous  piles  of  blazing  drift  in  which  horses 
were  consuming,  by  the  distant  watch-fires  of  the  homeless  refu- 
gees on  the  mountain-side,  and  by  the  flickering  torches  which 
disclosed  the  dark  waters  of  the  Styx-like  stream,  across  which 
a  flitting,  shadowy  Charon  could  be  fancied  ferrying  the  dead — 
they  listened  to  the  story  of  the  great  flood  that  swept  down  the 
valley  of  the  Conemaugh.  The  narrator  was  their  hostess  and 
the  hero  her  husband.  '  The  day  before  the  flood,'  she  began, 
'he  had  borrowed  my  brother's  horse  and  buggy.  My  brother 
had  a  store  down  in  the  town  there.  It  stood  not  far  from 
where  you  see  those  lights  where  they're  bringing  that  body 
across  to  the  depot.  The  next  morning  when  we  got  up  we  saw 
the  streets  all  underwater  and  the  river  still  rising,  and  he  thought 
my  brother  might  need  the  horse  at  his  home  up  the  Conemaugh, 
But,  seeing  that  the  buggy  would  be  of  no  use,  he  just  went  on 
horse-back.  As  he  came  down  the  side  of  the  mountain  to  get  to 
the  road  up  above  where  my  brother  lived,  he  saw,  by  the  way  the 
flood  was  comine  down  and  the  stufl^it  M^as  brino-inor  that  the  dam 
must  be  washing  over ;  so  he   started    full    speed    down    to  my 


202  "OPEN,  sesame:' 

brother's  house.  When  he  reached  it,  who  should  he  see  but  my 
sister-in-law,  with  her  little  child  by  the  hand,  standing  in  the  door- 
way. He  called  to  her  to  hand  him  the  baby  and  jump  up  behind, 
for  God's  sake,  for  the  dam  was  bursting-.  '  You  don't  mean  it,' 
says  she;  'you're  only  fooling  me.' — 'No;  it's  true,  I  tell  you. 
Jump  up  !   only  be  quick.' 

" '  She  saw  then  that  he  was  in  deadly  earnest,  but,  instead  of 
obeying  him,  she  said,  '  Wait ;  I  must  go  and  call  my  husband,'  and 
rushed  into  the  house.  That  minute  my  husband  heard  an  awful, 
crashing  noise,  and,  looking  up  the  river,  saw  all  the  rocks  and  trees 
coming  down.  He  knew  he'd  be  lost  if  he  waited,  and  could  do 
them  no  good ;  so  he  dug  his  heels  into  the  horse's  sides  and  just 
got  up  the  hill  in  time.  When  he  turned  to  look  back,  the  house 
was  gone — not  a  sign  of  it  left — and  they  all  swept  away  in  it.' 

"It  was  growing  chilly,  and  the  company,  shivering,  and  with 
a  common  impulse,  silently  sought  the  lighted  room. 

"The  difficulty  of  passing  the  numerous  faithful  but  somewhat 
indiscriminating  guards,  during  the  first  day  or  two,  was  vexatious, 
and  often  interfered  v/ith  the  discharge  of  important  duties.  Even 
with  a  scribbled  pass  in  every  pocket,  detentions  sometimes  oc- 
curred. This  the  writer  succeeded  in  remedying  in  the  following 
way.  In  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Station,  which  was  morgue 
within  and  commissary  without,  and  the  floor  of  which  was  covered 
with  nude  bodies  of  victims  of  all  ages  and  of  both  sexes,  he  found 
a  small  can  of  black  paint  and  a  brush  designed  for  marking  freight. 
Tearing  a  strip  from  a  piece  of  muslin  used  for  enfolding  the  dead, 
he  rudely  printed  on  it  '  Sanitary  Corps,'  and  pinned  it  on  the  front 
of  his  hat.  This  worked  like  a  charm,  and,  until  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  appropriate  badges  from  Pittsburgh,  was  password,  coun- 
tersign and  open  sesame  to  the  most  obdurate  sentinel.  It  was 
curious  to  observe  how  naturally  the  idea  of  the  necessity  for  a 
sanitary  authority  in  the  emergency  seemed  to  be  accepted  by  all. 


THE  PEOPLE'S  HEALTH. 


203-. 


"The  object  of  this  sketch,  which  has  simply  touched  upon 
the  saHent  features  of  the  work  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  in  Johnstown,  has  been  not  to 
glorify  the  Board,  but,  by  special  request,  to  add  the  simple  con- 
tribution of  an  eye-witness  to  the  history  of  a  tragedy  in  modern 
annals,  and  the  story  of  which  will  not  cease  to  be  read  with  inter- 
est as  long  as  human  hearts  beat  in  sympathy  with  the  woes  of 
their  fellows. 

"It  is  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  the  lesson  taught  by  the  prom- 
inent participation  of  the  Board  in  the  rescue  and  recovery  of 
Johnstown  will  engrave  itself  deeply  on  the  minds,  not  only  ot  those 
over  whom  it,  for  a  time,  in  the  sacred  interest  of  the  preservation 
of  human  life,  assumed  a  somewhat  rigorous  control,  but  of  all  un- 
der whose  eyes  these  pages  may  come. 

"That  lesson  is  tersely  conveyed  in  the  motto  of  the  Board, 

SALUS    POPULI,    SUPREMA    LEX." 


III. 

CARE  OF  THE   DEAD. 


I. CONCERNING    THE    MORGUES. 


These  when  death  comes  like  a  rushing  Hon. 

******* 
She  vanished.     We  can  scarcely  say  she  died. 
For  but  a  now  did  heaven  and  earth  divide ; 
This  moment  perfect  health,  the  next  was  death. — Dryden. 


The  dawn  of  the  day  after  the  flood  disclosed  the  wide  scene 
■of  its  terrific  disasters.  The  survivors,  after  the  night  of  infinite 
horrors,  beheld  that  which,  even  in  the  retrospect,  is  so  overpower- 
ing that  they  are  amazed  at  the  retention  of  their  sanity.  By  the 
grace  of  God  upholding  the  faith  of  those  who  knew  Him,  and  by 
the  necessity  of  immediately  grappling  with  the  problems  that 
confronted  us,  we  were  saved  from  despair  and  dementia.  One 
of  those  pressing  problems  was  the  recovery  and  identification  of 
.the  bodies  of  the  drowned.  Bodies  of  men,  women  and  children 
lay  scattered  over  the  streets,  in  the  wreckage  and  along  the 
water-courses,  many  of  them  bruised  and  mutilated,  and  some  of 
them  partially  buried  in  the  mud,  half  concealed  amid  the  debris, 
or  bruised  beyond  recognition.  Thousands  from  different  homes 
were  thus  by  the  remorseless  flood  washed  together  in  the  agonies 
of  death,  the  victims  of  the  common  catastrophe.  While  our 
noble  and  gentle  women  addressed  themselves  to  the  care  of  the 

(204) 


I.  OCA  TION  OF  MOR G UES.  205 

children  and  odier  rescued  sufferers,  some  of  the  men  at  once 
began  to  recover  the  bodies  of  the  dead ;  not  only  to  lessen  the 
perils  which  would  ensue  from  putrefaction,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
identification,  that  friendsmight  reclaim  their  dead  and  give  them 
decent  burial,  and  also  to  secure  personal  effects  or  valuables 
that  might  be  found  upon  their  bodies.  In  the  prosecution  of  the 
morgue  work,  the  Fourth  Ward  school-house,  the  Presbyterian 
church,  the  Millville  school-building,  the  Catholic  church  in  the 
borough  of  Cambria,  a  saloon  in  Morrellville,  and  a  private  resi- 
dence on  the  corner  of  Napoleon  and  South  Streets,  were  con- 
verted into  houses  for  the  dead.  For  a  short  time,  the  Pennsylva- 
nia Railroad  Station,  the  Peelorville  school-house,  the  Grand  View 
cemetery  chapel  and  the  Dibert  soap  factory  were  employed 
for  the  same  purpose.  At  Nineveh,  the  bodies  were  laid  out  upon 
the  green  sward  for  identification.  Owing  to  the  piled-up  wreck- 
age and  the  swollen  streams,  for  nearly  a  fortnight  the  multiplica- 
tion of  morgues  was  a  necessity  ;  but  as  soon  as  practicable  they 
were  all  consolidated  at  the  central  one — Millville  school-house — 
the  only  building  in  that  borough  left  on  its  foundation. 

Unlike  the  authorized  and  regularly  constituted  morgues  in 
our  large  cities,  these  extemporized  ones  were  destitute  of  the  com- 
monest conveniences,  and  of  means  of  protection  against  intrusion 
and  morbid  curiosity.  We  had  no  record-books,  not  even  paper, 
on  which  to  make  our  records,  and  had  to  use  with  great  economy 
that  which  we  gathered  amid  the  debris  or  happened  to  have  in 
our  pockets.  Upon  this  we  wrote  the  names  of  those  we  identified 
and  descriptions  of  the  unrecognized. 

We  were  obliged  to  employ  all  comers,  even  when  we  enter- 
tained fears  of  their  efficiency  or  were  suspicious  of  their  honesty, 
to  gather  up  the  dead  and  carry  them  into  the  morgues.  Delicate 
and  responsible  as  this  work  was,  it  had  to  be  done  as  speedily  as 
possible  before  identification  was  rendered  impossible,  and  before 


206       ■  PERIL   TO   VALUABLES. 

thieves  could  rob  the  bodies  of  what  was  upon  them  that  was  valu- 
able. Besides,  we  had  no  means  of  satisfying  ourselves  concern- 
ing the  helpers,  for  many  were  outsiders  and  strangers  to  every- 
body. We  learned  later,  when  Pinkerton's  detectives  arrived,  that 
a  number  of  these  volunteers  were  noted  crooks  and  criminals 
from  other  cities.  We  only  then  realized  that,  in  this  most  awful 
and  solemn  work,  we  were  unconsciously  giving  notorious  thieves 
the  opportunity  of  robbing  our  dead.  It  revealed  to  us  the  black 
depths  of  infamy  to  which  the  heart  of  man  can  sink.  My  experi- 
ence here  convinces  me  that  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  us  to 
revise  or  soften  the  declaration  of  the  Bible  and  our  orthodox 
creeds  on  the  subject  of  human  depravity.  In  some  cases  we 
were  subjected  to  annoyance  from  intoxicated  men,  and  I  was 
compelled  to  eject  many  of  them  forcibly  from  the  morgues. 

Our  anxiety  may  be  imagined  from  the  fact  that  we  had  no 
bank,  no  protected  place,  no  safes  where  to  deposit  money,  jewelry, 
watches  and  other  valuables  found  on  the  bodies.  These,  of 
course,  were  a  sacred  trust,  committed  to  us  as  superintendents  of 
the  morgues.  Their  preservation  was  far  more  than  ordinarily  im- 
portant, for  the  friends  to  whom  they  would  be  delivered  had  lost 
•everything,  and  these  would  not  only  be  valuable  as  relics,  but  might 
enable  them  to  purchase  food  or  other  necessaries.  Professional 
thieves  would  continually  pass  through  the  morgues,  ostensibly 
to  identify  alleged  relations  and  friends,  but  really  with  a  view  of 
claiming  the  valuables.  At  times,  the  only  protection  we  could 
give  them  was  to  keep  them  about  our  persons,  and  then  we  were  in 
fear  of  personal  violence.  Night  after  night  I  have  sat  or  reclined 
in  the  effort  to  sleep,  with  ^2,000  and  valuables  about  me,  so  that 
they  could  not  be  taken  without  my  awaking.  We  were  under 
the  necessity  of  eating  our  sandwiches  and  drinking  our  coffee  in 
the  midst  of  the  dead,  some  of  whom  were  mutilated  and  other- 
ivise  offensive. 


LISTS  OF  THE  DEAD. 


207 


Among  the  helpers  in  the  morgues  who  are  deserving  of 
special  praise  were  Undertakers  Russell  of  Braddock  and  Hen- 
derson of  Johnstown  ;  Doctors  Jessop  of  Kittanning,  Webster  and 
Smith  of  Pittsburgh  ;  Rev.  Messrs.  J.  S.  Woodburn,  Davin  and 
Mingle,  and  Messrs.  A.  M.  Jolly,  Thomas  L.  Porter,  W.  C.  Coon 
and  others. 

The  exact  number  of  the  dead  is  unknown.  I  believe  3,500 
to  be  a  low  estimate.  Two  thousand  bodies  have  been  recovered, 
and  fully  1,500  more  are  still  missing. 

Following  are  the  lists  of  the  dead  as  they  were  brought  to  the 
various  morgues,  embalmed  and  numbered  by  the  undertakers: 

MORGUE  "A"— FOURTH  WARD  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


1.  Hamilton,  Miss  Laura  (Mary). 

Was  to  have  been  married  on  the  next 
Tuesday.    Body  delivered  to  her  brother. 

2.  Knorr,  Mrs.  Berta. 

Supposed  to  have  money  stolen  from  her 
person. 

3.  Brinkey,  Elmer. 

Had  valuables. 

4.  Little,  John  A. 

Was  lost  in  the  Hulbert  House.  A 
Pittsburgh  man.  Had  valuables.  Body 
delivered  to  G.  C.  Stucke,  of  Sewickley. 

5.  Wilson,  Charles  H. 

Deformed.  Clerk  at  the  Hulbert  House. 
Had  valuables. 


Unknown. 
A  female.     Blonde  hair, 
be  Mrs.  Luckhart. 


Supposed  to 


7.  Unknown. 

A  girl  about  four  years  of  age. 

8.  Unknown. 

A  female.  Large;  about  forty  years 
.old.  Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  Christy,  of 
Butler,  Pa. 

9.  Unknown. 

A  girl  about  twelve  years  of  age.  Sup- 
posed to  be  a  Fitzharris. 


10.  Unknown. 

A  female  supposed  to  be  or  resembles 
Miss  Ella  Layton.  Necktie.  Plain  gold 
ring.     Age  about  twenty. 

11.  Unknown. 

A  female.     "  F.  L.  F."  on  envelope. 

12.  Unknown. 

A  young  lady.  Plain  ring  on  finger  of 
right  hand. 

13.  Unknown. 

A  lady  about  twenty-five  years  of  age. 
Bracelet  on  left  wrist.  Two  rings  on 
right  hand. 

14.  Wells,  Miss  Jennie. 

Removed  by  Wm.  A.  Ocker. 

15.  Andrews,  John. 

Found  on  Stony  Creek. 

16.  Unknown. 

A  female.  Fair  complexion.  Dark 
hair.  Weight  about  seventy-five  pounds. 
Height  five  feet.  Blue  waist,  plaid 
dress. 

17.  Unknown. 

A  man  about  fifty  years  of  age.  Short 
hair,  smooth  face. 

18.  Burns,  John. 

Brakeman  Cambria  Iron  Co.  Left  eye 
gone.    Buried  at  "  Prospect,"  June  9. 


208 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "^." 


19.  Unknown. 

A  young  lady  about  twenty.  Plain  ring 
on  right  hand.  Bracelet  and  ring  on 
left  wrist  and  band.  Ear-drops.  Brace- 
lets and  rings,  duplicates  of  Miss  Well's. 

20.  Unknown. 

Hulburt  House  porter.  Supposed  to  be 
William  Henry.    Colored.  Valuables. 

21.  Unknown. 

A  male.  Fair  complexion.  Black  hair. 
Gray  eyes.  Dark  blue  suit.  Flannel 
shirt. 

22.  Unknown. 

A  female.  About  twenty  years.  Fair 
complexion,  light  hair. 

Wild,  Jacob. 
Wild,  Mrs.  Jacob. 
Unknown. 
Female.     Light  hair.    About  fifteen  years. 

Jones,  Mrs.  W.  W. 

Pearl   street.     Two  rings  on    left  hand. 

Valuables. 
Powell. 

Male    child,    two    years    old.     Son    of 

Howell  Powell. 
Powell. 

Male    child,  a  few   days   old.     Son    of 

Howell  Powell. 
Baldwin,  George  H. 
Layton,  William. 

Found  near  B.  &  O.  station.     Valuables. 
O'Connell,  Mrs. 

Sister  of  Capt.  O'Connell,  of  Washington 

street.  ^ 

Unknown. 

Female.     Middle-aged.     Hair  on  chin. 


23- 

24. 

25- 

26. 

27. 

28. 

29. 
30- 

31- 

32- 
33- 


McCoy,  Mr. 
Railroad  street. 

34.  Unknown. 

Female.  Middle-aged.  Dark  hair 
mixed  with  gray. 

35.  Unknown. 

Female.  From  Hulbert  House.  A 
medal  monogram,  "J.  H.  G." 

36.  Richards,  John. 

Supposed  to  have  been  employed  by  W. 
A.  Moses.  Hair  gray.  Height  about 
five  feet  eight  inches.  Body  taken  by 
Mr.  Thos.  D.  Rees,  his  nephew,  June  4. 


37.  Unknown. 

Female.  About  forty-five  years.  Plain 
string  and  bag  around  her  neck.  Ear- 
rings. Dark  complexion.  Weight 
about  170. 

38.  Raab,  Amelia. 

Washington  street.     Keys. 

39.  Penrod,  William. 

Portage  street. 

40.  Murphy,  James  I. 

1 1 5  Park  Place. 

41.  Murphy,  Miss  Bessie. 

Daughter  of  James  I. 

42.  Unknown. 

Female.  Blue  eyes.  Black  hair.  Ear- 
rings. About  eighteen.  Valuables. 
Two  rings  on  left  hand.  Initial  on  one 
ring,  "  W   H." 

43.  Unknown. 

Female.  About  twelve  years.  Dark 
brown  eyes.  Bracelet  on  right  wrist. 
Supposed  to  be  a  Fitzharris. 

44.  Holter,  Miss. 

45.  Unknown. 

Female.  Sandy  hair.  Age  about  twenty- 
two. 

46.  Unknown. 

Female  child.  About  four  years.  Light 
hair.  Supposed  to  be  Katie  Krieger. 
(Mr.  Murphy.) 

47.  Unknown. 

Female.  About  twenty.  Black  hair. 
Ring  on  left  hand.  Ear-drops.  Na]i- 
kin  ring. 

48.  Davis,  Miss  M.  L. 

119  Market  street.  Afterwards  thought 
to  be  Miss  Masterson.  Body  left  on  lot 
of  Thomas  L.  Davis.  Ring  at  Fourth 
Ward  Morgue. 

49.  Unknown. 

Female.  About  forty.  Large.  Hair 
turning  gray. 

50.  Streum,  John. 

51.  Davis,  Miss  Mary. 

119  Market  street. 

52.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  thirty.      Red  hair. 

53.  Harris,  Frank  H. 

Son  of  Chief-of- Police  John  Harris, 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    ".^." 


211 


54.  Smith,  Arthur. 

Son  of  J.  L.  Smith,  marble  cutter. 
Buried  at  "  Prospect,"  June  9. 

55.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twenty.  Dark  hair. 
Light  complexion.  Watch  and  chain. 
Ring  on  right  hand.     Ear-rings. 

56.  Unknown. 

Female  child.  Age  about  four.  Dark 
hair.     Ring  on  left  hand. 

57.  Unknown. 

Female  child.  Age  about  three.  Dark 
hair.     Breast-pin. 

58.  Barbour,  Carrie  S. 

Age  about  sixteen.  Buried  at  "  Pros- 
pect," June  9th. 

59.  Randolph,  George  F.,  Jr. 

Valuables.     Beaver  Falls. 

60.  Diamond,  Frank  (or  Dimond). 

61.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty.  Dark  hair. 
Ring  on  left  hand.     $5  bill. 

62.  Faloon,  Miss  Annie. 

Buried  "  Prospect,"  June  9th. 

63.  Unknown. 

Female.  Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  Geis. 
Valuables. 

64.  Cox,  James  G. 

Philadelphia.     Valuables. 

65.  Fronheisser,  Mrs.  James  J. 

66.  Unknown. 

Male.     About  twelve.     Sandy  hair. 

67.  Butler,  Charles  F. 

Assistant  Treasurer  of  Cambria  Iron 
Company. 

68.  Jones,  Mrs.  S.  M. 

69.  Hamilton,  Miss  Jessie. 

70.  McAley,  P. 

Male. 

71.  Harrigan. 

Mary  Ellen,  twenty-two  years;  daughter 
of  Jerry  Harrigan,  17  Ridge  avenue, 
Minersville,  servant  in  the  Hulbert 
House. 

72.  Murtha,  James. 

73.  Davis,  William  L. 

74.  Eldredge,  Samuel  B. 

Policeman. 

75.  Penrod,  William. 

12 


76.  Unknown. 

Female.  Thirty  years.  Dark,  luxuri- 
ant hair. 

77.  Marshall,  Charles  A. 

78.  De  France,  Mrs.  H.  T. 

79.  Poland. 

Male.     Young  son  of  Dr.  Poland. 

80.  Poland. 

Male.     Little  son  of  Dr.  Poland. 

81.  Katzenstein,  Mrs.  Ella. 

82.  Katzenstein,  Edwin. 

Child  of  Mr.  Katzenstein. 

83.  Long,  Samuel. 

Butcher. 

84.  Unknown. 

Male.     Burned. 

85.  Strause,  Moses. 

Body  taken  by  son-in-law,  Freidman,  to 
Pittsburgh. 

86.  Wheat,  Frank. 

87.  Gageby,  Sadie. 

88.  Layton,  Mrs.  Ettie. 

89.  Layton,  Miss  May. 

90.  Hoopgard,  Conrad. 

Baker.     Clinton  street. 

91.  Holmes,  Julia. 

Wife  of  Charlie  Holmes. 

92.  Hellriggle,  Charles. 

Woodvale. 

93.  Jones,  Mrs. 

94.  Dunn,  Miss  Mary. 

Dressmaker.     Sixteen.     Peelorville. 

95.  Roth,  John. 

Buried  "  Prospect,"  June  6th. 

96.  Brown,  Peter. 

Woodvale. 

97.  Unknown. 

Male.  Sandy  beard  and  moustache. 
Supposed  to  be  Mr.  Farrell,  of  Wood- 
vale.    (Cambria  Iron  Co.,  Miller.) 

98.  Hoffman,  Bertha. 

Age  eighteen. 

99.  Hoffman,  Marion. 

Age  fourteen. 

100.   Hoffman,  Florence. 
Age  six. 

loi.   Hoffman,  Freida. 
Age  four. 


212 


RECORD    OF    MORGUE    ''^." 


ro2.   Hoffman,  Joseph. 
Age  three. 

103.  Hornick,  Mrs.  John  G. 

Broad  street. 

104.  Hoffman,  Mrs.  Mary. 

105.  Beam,  Dr.  W.  C. 

106.  Beam,  Mrs.  Dr. 

107.  Neese,  Conrad. 
loS.   Derris,  August. 

Portage  street. 

109.  Carlin,  Jonathan. 

Buried  at  No.  12,  Grand  View.  Body 
lifted  by  Thos.  B.  Bickerton,  June  28th, 
and  taken  to  Philadelphia  for  interment. 
In  Commodore  PeiTy's  expedition  in 
Japan,  that  opened  up  the  first  treaty. 
Fifty-seven  years. 

no.  St.  John,  Dr.  C.  P. 

Alex.  Adair  has  charge  of  body.  Trav- 
elling optician. 

111.  Weakland,  John. 

Lawyer. 

112.  Clark,  John  B. 

Boy.     Age  about  seven.     "  Prospect." 

113.  (l.)  Unknown. 

Female.  Large.  Weight  about  200. 
Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  Shabler,  or  Mrs. 
McClaren,  or  Mrs.  Murphy,  of  Hotel 
Brunswick. 

113.  (2.)  Spaller,  Lee. 

1 14.  Unverzagt,  George. 

115.  Unverzagt,  George. 

Age  seven. 

1 1 6.*  Fitzharris,  Mr. 

vSaloon-keeper,  Clinton  street.  Taken 
to  German  Catholic  Cemetery. 

117.  Behuke,  Charles. 

Late  Private  187  N.  Y.  Vols. 

118.  Riddle,  John,  Sr. 

119.  Valentine,  George  M. 

120.  Veiling,  Lizzie. 

121.  Bulter,  Sarah. 

Taken  by  her  brother, 

122.  Anderson,  John. 

In  charge  of  son. 

123.  Owings,  Daisy. 

By  brother-in-law,  Charles  Conrad. 


Unknown. 
Female.     About  thirty-five  years  of  age. 
Two   rings   on  right  hand.     Chain  with 
cross  attached. 

Unknown. 
Male.     Valuables.     Watch.     Two    dol- 
lar bill   and   one   dollar  in  silver.     Sun 
glass.     Bunch  of  keys. 

Male.     Two  years  old. 

Male.     A  few  days  old. 

Unknown. 
Female.        Heavy    build.        Full    face. 
Dark  hair.     Supposed   to   belong  to  the 
Salvation  Army. 

Strause,  Moses.     No.  85. 
A  Hebrew.      Age  seventy-eight.     Had 
been   fifty-five   years   in  America.     Em- 
balmed, and  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Fried- 
man enclosed  in  rough  box. 

(i.)  Knee,  George  D. 
Claimed   by  his   son   Henry,  and   buried 
in  Sandy  Vale. 

(2.)  Bogus,  W. 
Hulbert  House. 

Marburg,  Dr. 
Claimed     and 
Stroup. 

Bending,  Jessie. 
Bending,  Elizabeth, 
Died  after  flood. 

Pleegle,  Anna. 
Of  Somerset   county, 
her  mother. 

Deihl,  Miss  Carrie. 
Shippensburg,  Pa.  Claimed  by  Wni. 
H.  Ocker,  of  Philadelphia,  to  whom  she 
was  engaged  to  be  married,  and  re- 
moved by  him  to  be  buried  at  Shippens- 
burg, Pa. 

136.  Shumaker,  John  S. 

Son  of  James.  Walter,  Jennie  and 
Edith  also  drowned. 

137.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eight.  Light  hair.  Blue 
eyes.  About  three  feet  eight  inches  in 
height. 


124. 

125. 

126. 
127. 
12S. 

129. 

130. 

130. 
131- 

132. 
133- 

134- 
135- 


received     by    Sherman 


Recognized   by 


138.   Layton,  David. 
Valuables. 


RECORD     OF    MORGUE    -Ar 


21  ;j 


Wife  of  Martin  Green- 


139.  Tingle,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Identified  by  Mrs.  Bingle.  Her  lius- 
band  is  injured  and  in  the  hospital. 

140.  Haynes,  Walter  B. 

Valuables.  Taken  by  his  brother, 
Charles  W. 

141.  Unknown. 

female.  Fair.  Long  hair.  Height 
five  feet  four  inches. 

142.  Greenwald,  Rosa. 

Age  forty-three, 
wald. 

143.  Unknown. 

Female.  Dark  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Blue 
underdress  with  red  stripes.  ,,  Gingham 
apron.     Brown  sacque.     Removed. 

144.  (See  No.  53.) 

145.  Unknown. 

Female.  Dark  red  hair.  Gray  eyes. 
Black  alpaca  clothing. 

146.  Unknown. 

Said  to  have  been  Mary  Hamilton  or 
Miss  Mollie  Richards,  but  afterward 
found  to  be  wrong. 

147.  (i.)   (See  No.  30.) 

147.  (2.)   Unknown. 

Female.  Light  complexion.  Fair  hair. 
Brown  eyes.  Height  five  feet  six  inches. 
Age  about  twenty-five.  Blue  polka 
dress.  Plain  gold  ring  on  finger  of  left 
hand. 

148.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifteen.  Dark  brown 
hair.  Blue  or  hazel  eyes.  Red  sacque 
with  blue  trimming.     Plaid  dress. 

149.  Unknown. 

Male.  Fair  complexion.  Black  hair. 
Gray  eyes.  Dark  blue  suit.  Flannel 
shirt. 

150.  Unknown. 

Female.  Dark  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Dark 
dress  with  blue  waist.  Supposed  to  be 
Miss  Zimmerman. 

151.  Hains,  Walter  B. 

Son  of  J.  B.  Hains. 

152.  Fitzharris,  John. 

Age  twelve.  Gold  watch,  No.  1528. 
Empty  pocketbook.  Given  to  his  aunt, 
Ella  Mulliern. 


153.  Fitzharris,  Chris. 

A  boy.  Penknife.  Valuables  given  to 
his  aunt,  Ella  Mulhern. 

154.  Fitzharris,  Mrs.  Margaret. 

Valuables  taken  by  her  sister,  Mrs.  Ella 
Mulhern. 

155.  Fitzharris,  Miss  Sallie. 

156.  Jones,  Eliza. 

Pearl  street. 

157.  Unknown. 

Male.  Supposed  to  be  James  Barrett  or 
James  Lewis.     (Package.) 

158.  Werry,  Albert. 

Bank  notes  and  silver.     Lady's  watch. 

159.  Unknown. 

Female.  Penknife  and  buttonhook. 
Supposed  to  be  Katie  Fitzharris. 

160.  Unknown. 

Female.  Tickets  to  exhibition  by  the 
pupils  of  St.  John's  School,  June  20th. 
Blank  book  bought  of  Irwin  Rutledge, 
Jr.    Small  amount  of  money.    Removed. 

161.  McGuire,  Kate. 

Valuables  gotten  by  Laurence  McGuire. 
Age  about  fifty-five.  Unmarried.  15 
Walnut  street.     St.  John's  Cemetery. 

162.  Unknown. 

Male. 
*i63.  Benford,  Mrs.  E.  E. 

Of  Hulbert  House.  To  "  Grand 
View." 

164.  Unknown. 

Supposed  by  two  to  be  John  Schnable. 

165.  Hennekamp,  Oscar. 

Male.     Baby. 

166.  Hennekamp,  Mrs.  Rebecca. 

Wife  of  J.  H.  Identified  by  her  hus- 
band. Valuables  given  to  him.  Buried 
in  lot  143,  "  Grand  View." 

167.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  about  thirty. 

168.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  forty.  Supposed  to 
be  Meredith,  above  Caldwell's  store. 
Eagle  on  arm.  Bunch  of  keys.  "  Pros- 
pect," 6  I  10. 

169.  Unknown. 

Female.  Afterwards  identified  as  Mrs. 
Samuel  Lenhart. 

170.  Keifling,  Mrs.  Catharine. 

Taken  by  husband. 


214 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "A." 


171.  Keifling,  Mary. 

Taken  by  her  uncle. 

172.  Unknown. 

Female.  Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  Conrad 
Snable,  bar-tender  in  Kost  saloon  on 
Washington  street. 

173.  Unknown. 

Female.  Face  mangled.  Ring  on  fore- 
finger of  left  hand. 

174.  Carroll,  Thomas. 

Railroad  street,  Conemaugh  borough. 
Valuables.  65  and  collar-button  worked 
in. 

175.  Rabb,  Norma. 

Female.  Identified  by  Mrs.  Julia  A. 
Hatzinger.  Buried  in  lot  of  C.  Rabb, 
Sandy  Vale. 

176.  McCauliff,  Laura. 

Taken  by  her  father,  William. 
177-   Reidel,  John  C. 

Kernville.  Some  valuables.  Buried 
Prospect,  June  9th. 

178.  Unknown. 

Female.  Middle-aged.  Full  head 
dark  brown  hair.     Seersucker  dress. 

179.  Unknown. 

Male.  Sandy  beard  and  moustache, 
slightly  gray.  Oroide  watch.  Sun  glass. 
^2  note.     $1.10  in  silver. 

180.  Unknown. 

Male.  Black  hair  and  moustache. 
Oroide  watch.  Two  pocket-knives. 
Forty  cents  in  silver.  Postal  card  and 
envelope  addressed  to  M.  J.  Murphy, 
1030  Callowhill  street,  Youngstown, 
Ohio.  Valuables  taken  by  M.  J.  Mc- 
Andrew. 

181.  Fitzharris,  Christopher. 

Cash  $167.65.  Silver  watch,  knife,  etc., 
taken  by  A.  Craver,  of  Ebensburg. 

182.  Keifer,  Mrs.  John  A. 

Age  twenty-four.  Also  child  found. 
Taken  by  husband. 

183.  Lewis,  James. 

Main  street.  Silver  watch.  Knife. 
Cigar  case.  Pocketbook  containing 
ring,  key  and  five  cents.  Envelope 
marked  James  Lewis,  Main  street, 
Johnstown. 

184.  Ludwig,  Mrs.  Kate  Gerhart. 

Breast-pin.     Collar-button. 


185.  Von  Alt,  Henry. 

Collar-button  and  spoon. 

186.  Ludwig,  Henry. 

187.  Nathan,  Adolph. 

Claimed  by  Sol.  Reiman.  Valuables 
given  to  brother  Simon.  ($1.68,  keys, 
etc.) 

188.  Howe,  Mrs.  Thomas. 

Sixty-five  cents.     Two  keys. 

189.  Howe,  Robert. 

Son  of  Mrs.  Thomas  Howe.  Age  about 
eight.      Identified  by  brother. 

190.  Wild,  Bertha  (or  "  Gertie  "). 

Young  lady.     No  valuables. 

191.  Wolf,  Joanna. 

Aged.  No  valuables.  Removed  to 
Catholic  Cemetery. 

192.  Maltzi,  Jacob. 

City  butcher. 

193.  Brown,  Miss  Emily. 

Of  Woodvale.  Removed.  Ring  given 
to  her  sister,  Mrs.  Wm.  McAuliff.  Lit- 
tle girl  baby  in  her  arms  when  found. 

194.  Unknown. 

Female.  Small  child.  Found  in  arms 
of  Miss  Brown.  Supposed  to  be  child 
of  J.  M.  Shumaker. 

195.  Quinn,  Vincent  D. 

Valuables  placed  in  hands  of  John  J. 
Geis. 

196.  Benford,  Lewis  (Louis). 

Fifty  cents.  Collar-button  and  cuff- 
button. 

197.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  four  years. 

198.  Montgomery,  Alex. 

$29.54.       Silver    watch. 
Spectacles.       Eye-glasses, 
keys.       Letters,    etc.,    etc 
given  to  Alex.  McKean. 
Greensburgh. 

199.  Unknown. 

Female.  Aged.  Black  hair,  slightly 
gray.  Waist  of  narrow  striped  black 
and  white  goods.     Purse  with  key. 

200.  Werberger,  William. 

Professor  of  music 
keys.  Match  safe 
his  son-in-law. 


Cuff-buttons. 

Bunch    of 

Valuables 

Body  sent  to 


Silver  watch.     Four 
Valuables  given  to 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "y^." 


215 


201.  Kirkbride,  Mrs.  Ida. 

Age  about  thirty.  King  with  setting  on 
right  hand.  Two  plain  rings  on  third 
tinger  of  left  hand.  Small  ball  drop 
earrings. 

202.  P'isher,  W. 

Knife  and  register  receipt.  • 

203.  Kirkbride,  Lyda  (Lynda). 

Handkerchief.     Bracelet  and  ring. 

204.  Unlvnown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five.  Dark  hair. 
No  valuables. 

205.  Raab,  C.  George. 

Purse  with  $1.96.  Keys  with  name  on 
stencil.      Purse  delivered  to  brother. 

206.  Larimer,  James. 

Purse  with  one  cent.  Two  keys.  Two 
knives.     Buried  at  Grand  View. 

207.  Lichtenberger,    Rev.   James,   pastor   Ger- 

man Lutheran  Church. 
Claimed  by   James  Blander,  his  brother- 
in-law. 

208.  Phillips,  Mrs.  E. 

Woodvale.  Purse  with  $1.23.  Buried 
Prospect,  June  9th. 

209.  McKeever,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Purse  with  seventeen  cents.  Catholic 
prayer-book.  Crucifix.  Valuables 

given  to  Sallie  McKeen.  Buried  in  St. 
John's  Cemetery. 

210.  Unknown. 

Female.  Aged.  Nearly  bald.  Wore 
a  "  switch."  Upper  and  lower  false 
teeth.  Open  (silver)  thimble.  Twenty- 
five  cents.     Gold  earrings. 

211.  Hornick,  John  P.  (or  D.). 

Cash  ^351.  Gold  watch.  Bunch  of 
keys.  Badge  engraved  St.  G.  R.  O. 
Taken  by  Frank  Hornick. 

212.  ^Tahew,  Joseph. 

Recognized  by  his  father.  Age  sixteen. 
Light  hair.  No  valuables.  At  his 
father's  request  sent  to  Irish  Catholic 
Cemetery.  Two  sisters  and  three  broth- 
ers lost. 

213.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  three  years.  No 
marks.    Buried  at  Prospect,  June  9th. 


214. 
215- 

216. 
217. 

218. 
219. 


Woodvale.     No  valua- 


223. 


Tiiomas,  Edward. 
Woodvale.     Middle-aged.     Red    mous- 
tache   and    beard.       Four    gold    collar- 
buttons.     Given  to  O.  J.  Bishop.       Bur- 
ied in  his  own  lot  at  Sandy  Vale. 

Unknown. 
Male.       Age    eight    years.       Valuables 
placed  on  body. 

Young,  Aug. 
Valuables    given   to  George  Millheizer. 
Buried  in  his  lot  at  Grand  View. 

Thomas,  Lydia. 
Age  fourteen, 
bles. 

Unknown. 
Child,  a  few  days  old.     Badly  burned. 

Lenhart,  Emma. 
Age    eighteen.       Medium   size.        Ear- 
rings.    Gold  ring  with  white   setting  on 
second  finger  of  right  hand. 

Unknov^'n. 
Male.     Age    about    twenty-five.       Red- 
dish   brown     hair.        Cash    twenty-five 
cents.      Package    of  Japanese  headache 
cure. 

Murray,  James. 
Gold  watch.  Cash  $12.74.  Two 
bunches  keys.  Identified  by  his  partner, 
Mr.  Jas.  A.  Hayes,  of  Hayes,  Murray 
Co.,  1 103  Race  street,  Philadelphia. 
Body  shipped  by  B.  &  O.  R.  R.  by  Mr. 
Hayes'  order.     Valuables  given  to  him. 

Unknown. 
Female.    Age  about  six  months.   Buried 
at  Prospect,  June  9th. 

Marshall,  William. 
Of  firm  of  George  G.  Marshall  &  Co. 
Silver  watch  (open  face),  chain. 
Pocket  knife.  Bunch  of  keys.  Order 
book.  Purse  with  $5.61.  Valuables 
given  to  John  Marshall,  his  brother. 
Body  shipped  to  Indiana,  Pa.,  via.  P. 
R.  R. 


224, 


225. 


Lewellyn,  Mrs.  J.  J. 
Removed  to  Bangor, 


Pa.,  for  burial. 


Unknown. 
Female.     Age  about  fifty.     Brown  hair, 
turning  gray.     No  valuables.     Buried  at 
Prospect,  June  9th. 


216 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "A." 


226.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty-five.  Heavy 
dark  brown  hair.  Empty  purse.  Buried 
at  Prospect,  June  9th. 

227.  Unknown. 

Female.  Slender.  Knit  purse  with 
$7.75.     Aged. 

228.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  thirteen.  No  valua- 
bles.    Buried  at  Prospect,  June  gth. 

229.  Unknown. 

Male.  Aged.  One  cuff-button  and 
large  key.  Afterwards  identified  as 
James  Dillon,  of  Somerset.  Also  had 
watch,  wallet  and  papers  received. from 
Safety  Deposit  Company  and  given  to 
brother-in-law,  E.  P.  James,  Somerset. 
Buried  at  Prospect,  June  9th. 

230.  Unknown. 

Male.  A  few  weeks  old.  Greatly  de- 
composed. 

231.  Unknown. 

Female.     Young  lady. 

232.  McKinstry,  Annie. 

Age  fifteen.  No  valuables.  Buried  at 
Grand  View,  June  9th. 

233.  McKinstry,  Mrs.  May. 

Dressmaker.  Hager  Block.  Plain 
band  ring.  Engraved  hoop  finger  ring. 
Valuables  given  to  James  H.  Greer, 
brother-in-law.     Buried  at  Grand  View. 

234.  Unknown. 

Male.  Aged  about  thirty  Blind  in 
right  eye.  Pocket  knife.  Buried  at 
Prospect,  June  9th. 

235.  Hiss,  Miss  Jessie. 

Two  rings  on  finger  of  left  hand.  Kid 
gloves  in  pocket.  Small  pearl-handled 
knife,  collar-button  and  breastpin.  Valu- 
ables given  to  her  brother,  James  H.  Hiss. 

236.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age       about       twenty-five. 

Medium  height.  Heavy  set.  Dark 
hair.  No  valuables.  Buried  at  Prospect, 
June  gth. 

237.  Tittle,  Cyrus  P. 

Male.  Gold  watch.  Two  launches  of 
keys.  Penknife.  Match  box.  Stencil 
plate  marked  with  name.  Pocket-book 
containing  $75  94.  Valuables  given  to 
his  brother  James.  Buried  at  Sandy 
Vale  in  lot  of  John  Tittle. 


238.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  five  years.  Buried 
at  Prospect,  June  9th. 

239.  Linden  (or  Layden),  Mary. 

Age  about  twenty.  Brown  hair.  Full 
round  face.  From  Merchants'  Hotel. 
Identified  by  A.  Adair.  Buried  at  Pros- 
pect, June  9th. 

240.  Unknown. 

Female.  Large.  Full  face,  full  lips, 
small  nose,  light  hair,  pregnant.  Key 
and  one  cent.  Buried  at  Prospect,  June 
9th. 

241.  Eldridge,  Abraham. 

Package  of  photographs.  Large  key. 
Empty  pocket-book.  Fountain  pen. 
Gold  watch.  Tape  measure.  Match 
case.  Two  pocket-knives.  $5.08  in 
pockets.  Three  keys  and  a  bunch  of 
keys.  Valuables  given  to  Mrs.  A. 
Young.  Buried  in  lot  of  A.  Young,  June 
gth.  Grand  View. 

Unknown. 
Female.         Age       about      twenty-five. 
Heavy  set.     Dark  hair.     Buried  at  Pros- 
pect, June  gth. 

Unknown. 
Female.  Age  about  thirty-five.  Short 
in  stature.  Very  heavy.  Very  large 
breasts.  Dark  brown  hair.  Wart  on 
left  ear.  Gold  ring  with  rhinestone  set. 
rubbed  with  sand.  Breast-pin.  Buried 
at  Prospect,  June  gth. 

244.  Kimpsel,  Christian. 

Furniture  dealer.  Pocket-knife.  Bunch 
of  keys  with  name  on  stencil  plate. 
^2,500  in  bills,  ^600  in  gold,  $4.23  in 
silver  and  coppers.  Buried  in  lot  of 
Henry  Hesselbrie,  Sandy  V^ale,  June  gth. 

245.  Unknown. 

Female.  Aged.  Slender.  Dark  brown 
hair.  No  valuables.  Supposed  to  be 
Miss  Gordon  of  Hager  Building.  Buried 
at  Prospect,  June  gth. 

246.  Campbell,  Peter. 

Colored.  Pair  of  cuff-buttons.  Buried 
at  Prospect,  June  gth. 

247.  Believed  to  be  Elrigle,  Mr. 

Heavy  sandy  moustache.  Black  hair. 
Rather  spare  face.  Buried  at  Prospect, 
June  gth. 


242. 


243' 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "^." 


217 


248.  Unknown. 

Female.  Large.  Pregnant.  Brown 
hair.     Delicate  nose.     Medium  stature. 

249.  Zimmerman,  Theodore  F. 

Gold  watch  Elgin  No.  932,645.  Four 
collar-buttons.  Set  ring.  Purse  con- 
taining $7.18  in  silver  and  copper,  $20 
in  bills.  Valuables  given  to  G.  A.  Zim- 
merman.    Buried  at  Sandy  Vale. 

250.  McNally,  Patrick. 

Proper  number  lost.  Buried  St.  John's, 
June  9th. 

251.  Reicke,  Alexander. 

Pittsburg.     Sent  from  the  hospital  there. 

252.  Flagle,  David  C. 

Sent  to  Morgue  by  Alexander  Hart. 
Identified  by  Homer.  Buried  at  Pros- 
pect. 

253.  Nightly,  John. 

Cash  ^2  16.  Bunch  of  keys.  Papers, 
etc.     Valuables  taken  by  T.  J.  Espey. 

254.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  twelve  years.  Red- 
dish brown  hair.  Rather  heavy  build. 
No  valuables.  Sent  to  Prospect  for 
burial. 

255.  Raab  (or  Robb),  Mrs.  George  B. 

Age  about  forty-five.  Large.  Weighs 
about  one  hundred  and  eighty.  Dark 
hair.  Porous  plaster  on  breast.  To 
Sandy  Vale  for  burial. 

256.  Ripple,  Jackson. 

Brought      from 
Morgue,  No.  58. 

257.  Flinn,  Mary. 

Identified  by  paper  on  her  person.  Cash 
$8.19.     Valuables  to  D.  P.  Hensill. 

258.  Adams,  H.  Clay. 

Conemaugh  street,  Johnstown.  Oroide 
watch.  10  cts.  in  cash.  Bunch  keys. 
Match  safe.  Papers,  etc.  By  order  of 
Mr.  Scott  buried  at  Prospect,  June  loth. 

259.  Unknown. 

Male.  Slender.  Light  hair  and  mous- 
tache. Age  about  thirty.  Silver  watch. 
Bunch  of  keys.  Knife.  Collar-button. 
$1.94  in  cash.  Supposed  to  be  Cooney 
or  Conrad  Schnable. 


Presbyterian     Church 


260.  Slick,  Cyrus. 

Gold  watch-chain.  Two  pairs  of  gold 
glasses.  One  pair  silver  scissois.  Rail- 
road tickets.  Penknife.  Brass  check. 
Cash  ^6.21.  Identified  by  letters  in 
pocket. 

261.  Raab  (or  Robb),  George. 

Saloonkeeper  on  Washington  street. 
Cash  ^2.19.  Two  collar-buttons.  Two 
cuff-buttons.  Valuables  placed  in  hand 
of  Mr.  Ossenburg,  brother-in-law.  In- 
terred in  Sandy  Vale  or  Grand  View. 

262.  Alexander,  John  G. 

Valuables  in  hands  of  John  H.  Scott. 
Body  sent  to  Blairsville,  Pa.,  by  John 
Henderson,  June  loth. 

263.  Elsaesser  (son  of  C). 

Identified  by  Riley  Cramer. 

264.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty.  Medium 
height.  Full  form.  Light  brown  hair. 
Three  gold  rings  placed  on  body. 

265.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  fourteen.  Medium 
height.  Black  hair.  Buried  at  Pros- 
pect. 

266.  Neary,  Mrs.  Kate. 

Purse  with  $1.19.  Valuables  placed  in 
hands  of  her  son  Patrick.  Buried  at  St. 
John's  Cemetery. 

267.  Nugent,  Mary  Jane. 

Cash  #79.09.  Rosary.  Breast-pin.  Two 
keys.  Spectacle  case.  Green  purse. 
Breast-pin  engraved.     St.  John's. 

268.  McGinley,  James. 

Ex-policeman.  Valuables  in  hands  of 
Mrs.  Ella  Gurley. 

269.  Smith,  Mrs.  J.  L. 

From  Kernville.      Philadelphia. 

270.  Unknown.  ' 

Female.  Age  about  twenty-six.  Gold 
watch  and  chain,  with  horn  attached. 
Breast-pin.  Hair-pin.  Diamond  ring 
on  third  finger  left  hand  vi'ith  garnet. 
Gold  ring  on  second  finger  with  pearl 
setting.     Two  diamond  earrings. 

271.  Howe,  W.  F. 

Silver  watch.  P.  R.  R.  baggage  check, 
No.  48,196.  R.  R.  ticket.  Pen  and 
pencil.  ^13  in  bills.  87  cts.  in  coin. 
Bunch  of  keys.  Match  safe.  Silver 
pencil.  Knife.  Collar  and  cuffbuttons. 
Finger-rings  and  gold  stud. 


218 


RECORD  OF   MORGUE 


272.  Unknown. 

Young  lady.  Light  hair.  Gold  leaf  ear- 
ring, diamond  set  in  centre.  Old  num- 
ber lost.     Buried  Prospect,  June  loth. 

273.  Roth,  Mrs.  Emil  C. 

From  Presbyterian  Church  Morgue,  No. 
63- 

274.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  sixty-five  years. 
Knife.  Match-safe.  Watch-chain  with 
keys  attached.  Pencil.  Boots  with 
brass  heels.  Buried  at  Prospect,  June 
nth. 

275.  Stahr,  Fred. 

Died  from  injury  in  the  flood.  Coffin 
furnished  his  father  from  the  Morgue. 
Buried  in  Sandy  Vale,  June  nth. 

276.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty  to  thirty-five.  Weight 
145  pounds.  Brown  hair.  Medium 
stature.  Bunch  of  keys.  Prospect  June 
II,  1889. 

277.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  seventeen  to  eighteen 
years.  5  ft.  4  in.  height.  Weight  about  no 
pounds.  Ciieck  gingham  waist.  Blue 
and  white  striped  ticking  skirt.  Very 
heavy  brovrn  hair  tied  with  blue  ribbon. 
Plain  gold  ring  with  raised  square  centre 
and  diamond  set,  on  second  finger  of 
left  hand.  Samples  of  dress  and  skirt  on 
coffin.     Prospect,  June  nth. 

278.  Christman,  Miss  A.  C. 

New  Orleans.  Draft  for  ^275.  Cash 
$32.70.  Gold  pin.  Gold  chain.  Papers, 
etc.  Body  and  valuables  shipped  to 
Beauregard,  Tenn.,  on  telegraphic  order 
of  Mrs.  D.  H.  McGavock,  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  on  June  i  ith. 

279.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-five  to  forty.  Sandy 
hair.  Height  5  ft.  5  in.  Pair  of  steel 
knuckles.  Key.  Ticket  of  admission 
to  Johnstown  Opera  House.  Prospect, 
June  nth. 

280.  Raab,  Miss  Lizzie. 

Buried  as  unknown  216,  from  Millville 
School  Morgue,  at  Prospect.  Disinterred 
and  buried  in  lot  of  Conrad  Raab,  Sandy 
Vale,  June  12th. 


281.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  seven  or  eight  years. 
Ear-drops,  square  one-half  of  the  face  of 
the  ear-drop  checkered,  the  otlier  half 
engraved  with  a  vine.  Taken  from  body 
and  placed  with  valuables.  Prospect, 
June  1 2th. 

282.  Alexander,  Aralia  Kline. 

Age  thirteen.  Identified  and  removed 
by  her  mother.  Buried  on  lot  of  A.  J. 
Haws,  Grand  View,  June  13th.  Effects 
delivered  to  mother. 

283.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  forty.  Medium 
stature.  Weight  about  140.  Dark  brown 
hair.  Rosary  and  scapula  left  on  body. 
St.  John's,  June   13th. 

2S4.   Gard,  Andrew. 

Clerk  Penna.  R.  R.  station.  Identified 
by  papers,  watch,  etc.  Grand  View, 
June  14th. 

285.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  fifty.  Weight  150. 
Dark  hair,  turning  gray.  Medium 
height.  Bunch  of  keys.  Spectacles  with 
case.     Prospect,  June  14th. 

286.  Young,  Frank. 

Identified  by  his  mother,  to  whom  valua- 
bles and  body  were  delivered.  Grand 
View,  June  14. 

287.  Unknown. 

Male.  About  5  feet  6  inches  height. 
Striped  coat  and  pants.  Open-faced 
silver  watch.  Heavy  plated  chain  with 
black  stone  set.  Bunch  of  keys.  Pack- 
age of  Japanese  headache  cure.  Rubber 
eraser.  Pen-holder.  Button-hoolc.  Cash 
54  cts.     Prospect,  June  14th. 

288.  Unknown. 

Female.  Very     much      decomposed. 

Afterwards  identified  as  Mrs.  Frawater, 
mother  of  Colonel  Frawater.  Identified 
by  A.  Kerflure.  Prospect,  June  14th. 
No  goods. 

289.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  ten  to  twelve.  Very  much 
decomposed.  Hair  cut  short,  very  dark 
color.  Gray  pants  and  coat.  Blue  shirt 
waist.     Prospect,  June  14th.     No  goods. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "B." 


221 


290.  Unknown. 

Male.  Manhood  age.  Face  very  much 
disfigured.  Medium  size.  Jean  pants 
and  coat.  Coarse  laced  shoes.  Small 
piece  of  green  ribbon.  Pocket  knife, 
black  handle,  one  blade.  Wooden  pipe. 
Padlock,  key  and  15  cts.  in  pockets. 
Prospect,  June  14th.  Believed  to  be 
John  Rausch. 

291.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  not  known.  Heavy  set. 
Height  about  5  ft.  5  in.  Hair  light  brown. 
Weight  160.  Plain  gold  ring.  Medium 
size  breast  pin  above  shaped  Q  with  one 
brilliant  set.  Plain  old-fashioned  ear- 
ring.    Prospect,  June  14th. 

292.  Rapp,  George. 

Son  of  Phillip  Rapp,  of  Hornerstown. 
Died  after  flood.  Age  two  years.  Sandy 
Vale,  by  friends,  June  15th. 

293.  Dewald,  Charles  B. 

Presbyterian  Church  Morgue  No.  81. 
One  watch  and  chain.  Pocket  knife. 
One  pin  K.  of  P.  Finger  rings.  One 
watch  chain,  one  tooth  brush,  cash  ^1.20. 
June  15th.  Received  of  J.  A.  Russell 
all  above-named  articles.  A.  Dewald, 
father,  care  of  Jos.  F.  Miller,  4422  Lei- 
pert  St.,  Frankford,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
June  loth. 

294.  Diamond,  Mrs.  Anna. 

Silver  ring.  Purse.  ^10  bill.  $1.29 
silver.  St.  John's,  on  lot  of  James  Dia- 
mond. Valuables  recovered  by  James 
Diamond.     June  15th. 

Witnesses  /  Charles  Diamond, 
witnesses-!  g_  b.  Gosline. 


295.  Viering,  Mrs.  Henry. 

Grand  View,  June  15th.  Identified  by 
her  husband,  Mr.  Henry  Viering,  for- 
merly reported  from  Nineveh,  was  in- 
correct. 

296.  Viering,  Herman. 

Infant  child  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry 
Viering  aged  one  year.  Identified  by  the 
father.     Grand  View,  June  15th. 

297.  Viering,  Henry. 

Son  of  Henry  Viering.  Age  fourteen 
years.  Identified  by  the  father.  Grand 
View,  June  15th. 

298.  Unknown. 

Young  man.  Medium  weight.  Height 
5  ft.  7  in.  Light  brown  hair.  Silver  open- 
faced  watch.  Double  chain  with  square 
slide  and  square  locket,  charm  black 
stone  set  on  one  side  and  blue  stone  set 
on  the  other.  Emblem  pin  of  A.  O.  K. 
of  M.  C.  Pocket  comb  and  maroon 
leather  case.     Prospect,  June  15th. 

299.  Gardner,  Rosa. 

Daughter  of  Mr.  John  Gardner.  Age 
twenty  to  twenty-five.  Height  5  ft.  7  in. 
Long,  dark  brown  hair,  calico  dress. 
No  valuables.  Upper  Prospect,  June 
17th. 

300.  Snyder,  Mary. 

Age  eleven.     Sandy  Vale. 

301.  Froenheiser,  Catharine. 

Daughter  of  James  J.  Froenheiser.  Age 
three  months.     Grand  View. 


MORGUE   "B"— PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH. 


Dibert,  John. 

Weaver,  Mrs.  Sue. 

Dibert,  Blanche. 

Weaver,  John  Dibert. 
Note  : — The  following  thirty-four  bodies  were 
received   at   the    Morgue    in    the    Presbyterian 
•Church,  between   i    p.  m.,  June  3d,  and    3.30 


p    m.,   June   4th.      Only  the  "  L^nknown  "  01 
those  not  positively  identified  were  numbered. 
(Signed^,  H.  A.  Look,  M.  D. 
Williams,  Joseph. 
Han-is,  Margaret  T. 

Wife  of  John  T.  Harris. 
Harris,  Maggie. 

Daughter  of  John  T.  Harris. 


222 


RECORD    OF    MORGUE    -i?." 


Harris,  Sarah. 

Daughter  of  John  T.  Harris. 

Harris,  William  L. 

Son  of  John  T.  Harris. 
Wenner,  Karl. 
Wenner,  Jennie. 

Wife  of  Karl  Wenner. 
Wenner,  Mary. 

Daughter  of  Karl  and  Jennie, 
Marbourgh,  Dr. 
Bending,  Jennie  (or  Jessie). 
Knee,  George  D. 
Lambert,  Miss. 
Clark,  John  B. 
Clark,  Hamilton. 

Had  initial  J.  C.  on  arm. 
Gallagher,  Mrs.  Lizzie. 

nee  Barnes. 
Neary,  Mary  Ellen. 
Fisher,  Moses. 
O'Connell,  Mary. 
Rosenstell,  Mrs. 
Hoffman,  Charles  B. 
Unverzagt,  Mrs. 
Unverzagt,  Miss. 
McDowell,  George. 

Age  three  years. 
McDowell,  Lilly. 

Age  four  years. 

IV.  Unknown. 

Female.  Colored.  Supposed  to  be  Mrs. 
Brown  or  Mrs.  Holmes. 

V.  Unknown. 

Supposed  to  be  Annie  Fitzner,  but  very 
doubtful.  An  autograph  album  near 
her  hand  belonged  to  Blanche  S.  Wilson. 

VL    Unknown. 

VH.  Constable,  Philip  E. 

VIH.  Unknown. 

Probably  Claus  Bruhn. 
IX.    Unknown  both  as  to  name  and  sex,  burned. 
X. 
XL 

Xn.  Unknown. 

Described  on  coffin. 
XIH.  Unknown. 

Described  on  cofi&n. 


Note  : — The  foregoing  were  copied  from 
"slips"  in  the  possession  of  D.  J.  B.  The 
following  were  transcribed  from  the  book  kept 
in  the  Morgue.  L  N.  R. 

14.  Unknown. 

Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  Reese,  wife  of  J. 
W.  Reese. 

15.  Unknown. 

16.  Rosensteel,  Mrs.  J.  M. 

17.  Bruhn,  Claus. 

Buried. 

18.  Unknown. 

19.  Unknown. 

20.  Halslead,  Rhea. 

21.  Unknown. 

22.  Unknown. 

Female.  Sixteen  years.  White.  Brown 
hair.     5  cts. 

23.  Kinney,  Mrs. 

Age  thirty-five.  $103.  Two  bunches 
of  keys.     Watch  chain. 

24.  Unknown. 

Female.  Fifteen  years.  Light  brown 
hair. 

25.  Unknown. 

Male.  Eleven  years.  Buried  in  Pros- 
pect. 

26.  Gallagher,  Prof. 

Pocket  book  jSl.31.  Silver  watch  and 
chain.  Two  pocket  combs.  Pair  cuff- 
buttons.  Bunch  keys.  Collar-button. 
One       handkerchief.  Sleeve-buttons. 

Charles  Baines  received  the  above. 

27.  Hoffman,  Benjamin. 

28.  Brinker,  Miss. 

Hair  lip. 

29.  Hoffman,  Minnie. 

30.  Hoffman,  Helen. 

31.  Unknown. 

Very  large.  Alpaca  dress.  Two  gold 
rings.     Sent  to  Prospect. 

32.  Unknown. 

Male.  Dark  hair.  Dark  blue  suit. 
Ring  on  finger  with  amethyst,  vi'ith  G. 
L.  H.  on  stone.  Pocket-book  with  26 
cts.     Cuff-buttons  and  collar-buttons. 

33.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  eight.  Light  hair.  Spring 
heel  shoes.  Red  flannel  undershirts 
Calico  waist.     Canton  flannel  drawers. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "J5. 


223 


34.  Unknown. 

Female.  Eleven  years.  Light  hair.  Red 
flannel  dress.  Blue  waist.  Barred  shirt. 
Black  stockings  with  red  stripe  on  top. 

35.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  5  feet  6  inches 
height.  Brown  hair.  Corsets.  Red 
flannel  shirt.  Muslin  drawers.  Wart 
on  left  hand  front  finger.  Two  finger 
rings,  one  carved,  the  other  ruby.  Breast- 
pin. 

36.  Mangin,  Mrs. 

Large.     Taken  by  friends. 

37.  Unknown. 

Male.  Cash  in  wallet,  $312.51.  Eighty. 
Taken  by  James  Murphy,  "  K." 

38.  Unknown. 

Male.  White.  Heavy  head  of  hair. 
Brown  eyes.  135  pounds.  Height  5 
feet  6  inches. 

39.  Ebler,  A. 

40.  Strayer,  Mrs.  James. 

Taken  by  friends. 

41.  Bricker,  Henry. 

Open-faced  watch  with  chain.  Papers, 
keys,  etc.     Claimed. 

42.  Unknown. 

Male.     Sent  to  Prospect. 

43.  Unknown. 

Female.  Thirty-five  years.  Two  small 
rings.     Earrings. 

44"   Leslie,  J.  S. 

$46.25.  Penknife.  Bunch  of  keys  and 
paper.     Taken  by  "  Deckart." 

45.  Unknown. 

Male.     Thirteen  years. 

46.  Strayer,  Myth. 

Identified  by  family. 

47.  Unknown. 

Female.  Thirty-five  years.  Black  dress. 
Red  flannel  skirt.  Black  silk  stockings. 
Small  plain  gold  ring  on  left  hand. 
Upper  and  lower  false  teeth.  Small  ear- 
rings. 

48.  Hughes,  Emma. 

Claimed. 

49.  Ryan,  John. 

Claimed. 


50.  Eshdale,  James. 

A  coupon  book,  Johnstown  and  Stony 
Creek  R.  R.     56  cts. 

51.  Jones,  Thomas. 

$3-50- 

52.  Unknown. 

Male.  Four  years.  Well  dressed. 
Brown  corkscrew  coat.  Blue  waist. 
Black  stockings. 

53.  Rowland,  Louis. 

424  Bedford  street.  Bunch  of  keys. 
Large  pocket-book  with  papers.  Knife. 
12  cts.  Two  old  style  door  keys.  Ring 
on  left  hand  with  "  R"  thereon.  Gold 
watch  and  chain. 

54.  Unknown. 

Male.  One  old  knife  only.  Supposed 
to  be  Mr.  Evans,  Machinist.  "  Rool " 
with  W.  H.  Clater,  534  9th  Ave. 

55.  Unknown. 

Female.  Thirty-six  years.  Black  and 
white  woolen  dress.  Red  woolen  hose 
with  black  feet.  Brown  waist.  Two 
gold  rings,  one  plain  and  heavy,  one  light 
band  ring  with  "  L.  S.  H."  on  it.  Gar- 
net earrings. 

56.  Witt,  Casper. 

Age  sixty.  Weight  225.  15  cts.  One 
small  key.  One  old  knife.  Taken  by 
relatives. 

57.  Unknown. 

Female.  Thirty-five  years.  Black  cash- 
mere dress.  Jersey  jacket.  Black  stock- 
ings. Button  shoes.  Dark  brown  hair. 
Scarlet      underwear.  Muslin      skirt. 

Scapular.  Green     corded     petticoat. 

Small  gold  ring.  Height  5  feet  9  inches. 
Supposed  to  be  Teny  Rubert,  married  to 
Sabene. 

58.  Ripple,  Jackson. 

Thirty-eight  years.  $47.16.  Open-faced 
silver  watch.  Weight  185.  Knife. 
Taken  by  Jack  Walkins,  Walnut  Grove. 

59.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-eight.  Weight  165. 
One  very  small  key.  Black  coat.  Blue 
striped  flannel  shirt.     "  D.  E.  Beckley." 

60.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-seven.  Weight  160. 
Nothing  but  a  rule. 


224 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "^." 


61.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty.  Weight  150.  Sil- 
ver watch  and  chain.  Two  door  keys. 
One  comb.  Penknife.  Pocket-book. 
Small  key.     Leather  belt.     $32.36. 

62.  Brinkley,  Dr.  G.  C. 

$49.85.  Open-faced  silver  watch.  Knife, 
books,  papers,  etc.  Identified  and  taken 
by  friends. 

63.  Roth,  Mrs.  Emil  C. 

One    scarf-pin.     One 
friends. 


stud.      Taken  by 


64.  Unknown. 

Male.  Thirty  years.  Weight  220. 
Open-faced  silver  watch.  One  knife. 
One  rule.  One  tooth-brush.  One  lead- 
pencil.  Book  of  rates  E.  L.  A.  S. 
1000  mile  pass  book.  Tape  line.  Pair 
cuff-buttons.  Gave  valuables  to  R. 
Duncaster  in  presence  of  Corporal  F. 
W.  Loesch. 

65.  l^nknown. 

Male.  160  pounds.  Age  thirty-five. 
$2.50.  Bunch  of  keys.  Sent  to  Pros- 
pect.    G.  B. 

66.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-nine.  165  pounds. 
Screw-driver.  Electric  wire  keys.  Plug 
of  tobacco.  Plyers.  Knife.  Wrench 
screw.  Two  passes  for  street  cars. 
Papers  marked  W.  E.  Kegg  found  upon 
him.    Mother  lives  in  Harrisburg. 

67.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-one.  Weight  140. 
Dark  clothes.  No  valuables  or  other 
articles. 

68.  Unknown. 

Female.      Age    twenty. 
Dark  hair.     No  articles. 

69.  Benshoff,  Arthur. 

Age  thirty-five.  Weight  150.  Gold 
watch  and  chain.  Two  knives.  Pocket- 
book  with  $1.25.  Pair  cuff-buttons. 
Two  keys.     Two  collar-buttons. 

70.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirteen.  10  cts.  Small, 
round,  black  ball.  Tin  tobacco  tabs. 
Small  piece  of  lead-pencil.  Scapulary. 
Sent  to  Prospect. 


Weight     1 10. 


71.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-five.  1 50  pounds. 
Very  few  clothes  on.  Black  skirt. 
Black  stockings.  Slippers.  No  money 
or  valuables.     Sent  to  Prospect. 

72.  Stattler,  Frank  E. 

Age  twenty.  Weight  148.  Smooth 
face.  .Small  gray  barred  coat.  No  vest. 
Flannel  shirt  ribbed  in  front,  brass  buttons 
ill  it.  Plug  of  twisted  tobacco.  Bunch  of 
keys.  Button-hook.  Name  on  key-ring 
was  Frank  E.  Stattler,  on  reverse  side 
was  No.  121  Park  Place.  Key.  Taken 
by  his  brother,  in  presence  of  D.  J. 
Beale,  D.D. 

73.  Supposed  to  be  Davis,  Miss  Delia. 

Age  twenty-four.  Weight  135.  Blue 
calico  dress  with  figure  on  it.  Red  hair. 
Small  plain  gold  ring.  Could  not  remove 
ring.  Letter  from  her  mother  addressed 
Miss  Delia  Davis,  142  Grant  street, 
Johnstown. 

74.  Meyer,  Mary  F. 

Identified.     Taken  by  her  brother. 

75.  Meyer,  Mrs.  Elizabeth. 

Identified.  Taken  by  her  son,  John 
Meyer.  Valuables  given  to  her  son, 
John  Meyer,  Washington  street  barber. 

76.  Coad,  Mrs.  Mary. 

77.  Coad,  Willie. 

78.  Coad,  John. 

79.  Hollevan,  Miss. 

80.  O'Connell,  Captain. 

81.  Duvalt,  Chas.  B. 

82.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five.  Black  silk 
stockings.  Calico  waist,  blue  with  white 
stars  and  white  buttons,  white  and  blue 
collar.     Sent  to  Prospect. 

83.  Unknown. 

Boy  baby.  Age  six  months.  Plaid 
skirt,  red  and  black.  Had  shoes  on. 
Found  in  front  of  Cambria  Iron  Co.'s 
office. 

84.  Unknown. 

85.  (No  record.) 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Weight  150. 
Blue  gingham  dress.     One  pin. 

86.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  two  years.  Red  and  black 
barred  blue  woolen  stockings.  Su{> 
posed  to  be  Hoffman. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "B." 


225 


87. 


Unknown. 
Male.     Age  seven  to  eight.     Blue  waist, 
crescent  figure.     Short  knee  pants,  black 
and  white. 


Unknown. 
Male.     Age    nine 
with  white  figures. 


)r   ten.      Blue  waist 
Short  knee  pants. 


89.  Gaither,  Harry. 

Western  Union  Telegraph  despatch  boy. 


90.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  unknown.  Weight  120. 
Blue  calico  dress  with  small  crescent 
dots.  White  and  blue  apron.  Black 
stockings,  with  red  and  gray  stripes  on 
the  top. 

91.  Reese,  Miss. 

Taken  by  her  father.  Age  four.  James 
Reese. 

92.  Ogler,  Mary. 

Age  eighteen  or  nineteen. 


MORGUE  "C"— MILLVILLE    SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


1.  Prosser,  Miss  Bessie. 

Daughter  of  Charles  Prosser,  of  Cresson. 
No  valuables. 

2.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twenty-five  or  thirty  years. 
Cameo  ring  with  man's  head.  Initials 
R.  A.  W.  Valuables.  Supposed  to  be 
Manfield. 

3.  Byran,  Elizabeth  M. 

Age  about  seventeen.  Of  Germantown, 
Philadelphia.  Brown  dress.  Bracelets, 
seven  strands  and  locket  with  initials, 
"  E.  M.  B."     On  Day  Express. 

4.  Downey,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Sister  of  David  Faloon.  Thin  silver 
ring  on  third  finger  of  left  hand.  Can't 
take  it  off. 

5.  Unknown. 

Male.  About  fifteen  years  old.  Sup- 
posed to  be  Paul  Geddes.     No  valuables. 

6.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty  to  twenty-three. 
No  valuables. 

7.  Overback,  William  H. 

No  valuables. 

8.  Unknown. 

Female.  Three  band  rings,  one  with 
initials  "  F.  M."  Earring  in  left  ear. 
Right  earring  torn  out. 

9.  Owens,  Annie.' 

Age    one    and    one-half    years.       Body 
taken  by  her  brother.     Thomas  J.  Jones. 
10.  Lewis,  Orie. 

Boy.     Three  years  old. 


11.  Owens,  Mary  Ann. 

Wife  of  Moses  Owens.  Plain  ring  on 
third  finger  of  left  hand  (can't  take  off). 
Breast-pin.     Delivered  to  husband. 

12.  Jones,  Annie. 

Daughter  of  James  Jones.  Conemaugh 
street,  Johnstown. 

13.  Jones,  Richard. 

Conemaugh  Borough. 

14.  Unknown. 

Band  ring  on  third  finger  of  left  hand. 
Ring  with  the  words,  "  Gott,  Schutz, 
Dick,"  engraved  thereon. 

15.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-five  to  forty.  Possi- 
bly a  Jew,     No  valuables. 

16.  Geddes,  George. 

Jacob  Nolen  says  that  John  Thomas  (?) 
has  a  watch,  book,  and  over  ^12  in 
money  which  was  taken  from  body  of 
George  Geddes. 

17.  Rose,  H.  G. 

District  Attorney  of  Cambria  county.  Pa. 

18.  Unknown. 

At  first  supposed  to  be  George  Helsel, 
but  found  to  be  a  mistake. 

19.  Schelleimer. 

Male.  Conemaugh  Borough.  Age 
thirty-five  to  forty.  Red  hair  and  mous- 
tache. 

20.  Williams,  Mrs.  D.  J. 

Breast-pin  given  to  her  husband. 


226 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C. 


21.  Prosser,  Fanny. 

Daughter  of  Charles  Prosser,  of  Cresson. 
Earrings.  Silver  ring  on  middle  finger 
of  lefl  hand.     Can't  get  it  off. 

22.  Parsons,  Mrs.  Eva  May. 

Breast-pin.     Not  taken  off. 

23.  Myers,  John. 

Son  of  Philip  Myers,  of  Millville. 

24.  Jones,  James. 

Point  Johnstown. 

25.  Thoburn,  Thomas. 

26.  Leech,  Mrs.  AUie. 

27.  Sharkey,  Mary. 

Daughter  of  Neil  Sharkey. 

28.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty  to  twenty-five. 
Brown  hair.  Black  cloth  coat.  Gold 
watch  and  chain.  Breast-pin.  Plain 
gold  ring,  marked  "  H.  B."  to  "  M.  S. 
McD."  Supposed  to  have  been  a  pas- 
senger east  bound  train. 

29.  Smith,  Mrs.  Hettie  H. 

Wife  of  H.  K.  Smith,  of  Osborne,  Green 
CO.,  Ohio.  Watch  chain  and  two 
lockets.  One  locket  lost  in  getting  body 
out.  Breast-pin.  Pair  of  cuff-buttons. 
Pocket-book  with  $30.  Valuables  de- 
livered to  her  husband. 

30.  Unknown. 

Female.     Mistaken  for  Mrs.  Ogle. 

31.  Tross,  Mrs.  Margaret. 

Wife  of  J.  W.  Tross.  Age  about  thirty- 
eight.  Height  5  feet  4  inches.  Brown 
hair,  double  plait.  Upper  teeth  false. 
Old  scar  on  left  side  of  face.  Light 
underwear.  Button  shoes.  Black  stock- 
ings.    Checkered  waist. 

32.  Burkhart,  Mrs.  Mollie. 

Plain  gold  ring  on  third  finger  of  left 
hand.     Could  not  be  removed. 

33.  James,  Mollie. 

Thirteen  years  old.  Daughter  of  E.  A. 
James,  Jr.,  117  Market  street,  Johnstown. 

34.  Davis,  Frank. 

603  South  4th  street,  Johnstown. 

35.  Kenna,  Mrs.  Alice. 

nee  Christy. 

36.  Boyer,  Solomon. 

PVankhn  Borough. 

37.  Stophel,  Mrs.  Margaret. 


38.  Lucas,  Mrs.  Maria. 

Colored. 

39.  Unknown. 

Female.      Burnt  beyond  recognition. 

40.  Unknown. 

Sex  unknown.  Burnt  beyond  recognV 
tion. 

41.  Unknown. 

Female.  About  thirteen  years.  Black 
stockings  with  red  tip.  Burned  beyond 
recognition. 

42.  Williams. 

Male.  About  fifteen  years.  Dark  com- 
plexion. Weight  about  100.  Fie  ght  5 
feet.  Brown  suit.  Blue  shirt,  ui  cts. 
Pass  book.  Glove  on  left  hand.  Money 
and  pass  book  in  express  ofifice. 

43.  Unknown. 

Male.  Six  years  old.  Liglit  hair. 
Weight  about  70.  Height  about  3  feet 
6  inches.  Black  and  yellow  pants.  Coat 
red  lining,  brass  buttons  with  eagles 
thereon. 

44.  Wilson,  Dr.  J.  C. 

45.  Myers,  Catherine. 

Wife  of  Philip  Myers.  Cinder  street, 
John.stown.     Age  thirty-one. 

46.  Unknown. 

Male.  Badly  burned.  Supposed  to  be 
Patrick  Fagan. 

47.   (i.)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirteen.  Badly 
burned.  Supposed  to  be  the  daughter  of 
Patrick  Fagan. 

47.   (2.)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  six  months.  Badly 
burned.  Supposed  to  be  the  daughter  of 
Patrick  Fagan. 

48.  Unknown. 

Female.  Badly  burned.  One  heavy 
plain  gold  ring.  One  light  plain  gold 
ring.  One  old  style  carved  ring.  Can't 
remove  them. 

49.   (i.)  Unknown. 

49.   (2.)  Unknown. 

Two  bodies.  Burned  beyond  recogni- 
tion. Female.  With  blue  merino 
stockings.  Male.  Pair  of  red  socks. 
Black  pants.     Ages  cannot  be  estimated. 


RECOR 


^^b 


OF   MORGUE    "C." 


227 


50.  Unknown. 

Burned  beyond  recognition.  Head, 
arms,  legs  burnt  off.  Telegraph  instru- 
ments and  chair  found  with  body. 
Handkerchief  in  coffin. 

51.  Murphy,  John. 

Iron  street,  Johnstown. 

52.  Beam,  Charles. 

Son  of  Dr.  L.  T.  Beam,  142  Market 
street,  Johnstown. 

53.  Unknown. 

Female.     Burned  beyond  recognition. 

54.  Unknown. 

Male.     Burnt  beyond  recognition. 

55.  Fitzhnrris,  Mary. 

Age  nineteen.  Franklin  street,  Johns- 
town. 

56.  (Same  as  8.) 

57.  Tucker,  Lilian  G. 

Age  nineteen.  Maple  avenue,  Woodvale. 
(Age  eighteen  to  twenty?).  Dark  hair. 
Hazel  eyes.  Weight  almost  130.  Height 
about  5  feet  6  inches.  Two  rings,  one 
bearing  initial  "A."  Figured  wrapper. 
One  tooth  on  right  side  filled  with  gold. 

58.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty-seven.  Dark 
hair.  Dark  eyes.  Weight  about  1 10. 
Height  about  five  feet  3  inches.  Calico 
dress.  Square-toed  shoes.  Colored 
shirt. 

59.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  sixty.  Fair  com- 
plexion. Gray  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Weight 
about  1 10.  Height  about  5  feet  4  inches. 
Dark  colored  shoes. 

60.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twenty-two.  Dark 
brown  hair.  Light  blue  eyes.  Weight 
about  150.  Height  about  5  feet  4  inches. 
Buttoned  shoes.     Calico  dress. 

61.  Hite,  Samuel. 

Male.  Age  thirty  to  thirty-five.  Weight 
about  170.  Height  5  feet  10  inches. 
Hair  cut  close.  Hazel  eyes.  Dark 
pants.     Working  clothes.     Laced  shoes. 

62.  Unknown.  I 

Male.  Age  three  years.  Height  about 
3  feet  5  mches.  Light  hair.  Blue  eyes. 
Barred  woolen  pantalettes  with  waist.        | 


63.  Blough,  Emanuel. 

Weight  about  160.  Height  about  5  feet 
8  inches.  Light  complexion.  Black 
hair.  Brown  or  hazel  eyes.  White 
undershirt.  Black  vest.  Watch.  Bunch 
of  keys.  Pocket-book.  Looking-glass. 
20  years  in  drug  store.  Buiied  on  father's 
farm  in  Stony  Creek. 

64.  Bt^am,  Dr.  L.  T. 

65.  Murr,  Charles. 

66.  Unknown. 

Female.  Child.  Weight  about  25 
pounds.  Height  about  18  inches.  Sandy 
hair.     Blue  eyes. 

67.  Buchanan,  John  S. 

68.  Levergood,  Miss  Lucy, 

69.  James,  Mrs.  John  W. 

70.  Surany,  David. 

71.  Seibert,  Henry. 

72.  Potter,  Joseph,  Sr. 

73.  Vinton,  Margaretta. 

74.  (No  record.) 

75.  Howe,  Mary  E. 

Washington  street,  Johnstown. 

76.  Owens,  Thomas. 

58  Conemaugh  street,  Johnstown. 

77.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  forty-five.  Weight 
about  115.  Height  about  5  feet  6  inches. 
Fair  complexion.  Black  hair.  Dark 
blue  eyes.  Red  underwear.  Black 
dress.  Plain  gold  ring  on  second  finger 
of  right  hand.  Pocket-book  containing 
buttons  and  61  cts.  Pocket-book  con- 
taining ^10  bill  and  one  silver  dollar. 

78.  Spitz,  Walter  L. 

79.  (No  record.) 

80.  Morgan,  Martha  (Cinder  street). 

About  twelve  years  old.     Brown  dress. 

81.  Rodgers,  Mrs.  Mary  E. 

Pocket-book  $17.00.  Comb.  Night- 
cap. 

82.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  about  forty.  Height 
about  3  feet  9  inches.  Light  hair.  Coat, 
vest.     Burnt  beyond  recognition. 

83.  Keedy,  Mrs.  Mary. 

84.  Zeller,  Miss  Rose. 

85.  (No  record.) 


228 


RECORD  OF   MORGUE    '-C 


86.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  about  170.  Height 
about  5  feet  9  inches.  Head  burned  off. 
Dark  lace  shoes.     Revolver  and  knife. 

87.  Groinley,  Lillie. 

Mineral    Point.  Weight    about     125. 

Height  about  5  feet  6  inches.  Dark 
hair.  Hazel  eyes.  Two  plain  gold 
rings  on  right  forefinger.     Body  nude. 

88.  McDowell,  Mrs.  Agnes. 

183  Pearl  street. 

89.  Peydon,  Campbell. 

.Son  of  John  W.  Peydon,  179  Clinton 
street. 

90.  Unknown. 

Portion  of  a  body  (burned). 

91.  Unknown. 

Portion  of  a  body  (burned). 

92.  (No  record.) 

93.  Christie,  Andrew  Coulter. 

187  Maple  avenue,  Woodvale,  Pa. 

94.  Bischop,  Charles. 

IS170  in  paper  and  $75  in  gold.  Pair  of 
new  gum  boots. 

95.  Ross,  Joseph. 

Norreville. 

96.  Hurst,  Nattie. 

Boy  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  years 
(Johnstown).  Weight      about       120. 

Height  about  5  feet  3  inches.  Sandy 
complexion.  Small-pox  marks  on  face. 
Light  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Dark  clothes. 
White  shirt.     One  pair  new  gum  boots. 

97.  Unknown. 

Female.     Burnt  beyond  recognition. 

98.  McDowell,  George. 

183  Pearl  street,  Johnstown. 

99.  Peydon,  Georgianna. 

189  Clinton  street. 

100.   Peydon.  Julia. 

189  Clinton  street,  Johnstown. 

loi.   Suiter,  Homer. 

Age  about  eight.  Weight  about  50. 
Height  3  feet  9  inches.  Light  complex- 
ion. Sandy  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Blue 
waist.  Dark  pants.  Barefooted,  ^i.oo 
silver  clasped  in  hand. 

102.   Hannekamp,  Samuel  E. 

Lincoln  street,  Johnstown. 


103.  Unknown. 

All  burned.     Unrecognizable. 

104.  Unknown. 

Two  bodies,  all  burned. 

105.  Unknown. 

One  of  the  bodies  in  104. 

106.  Unknown. 

Female.  Badly  burned.  Unrecogniza- 
ble.    Ring  marked  "  K.  T.  B." 

107.  Fisher,  Noah. 

Richland  township.  Weight  about  135. 
Height  about  5  feet  6  inches.  Medium 
hair.  Hazel  eyes.  Sack  coat.  Vest. 
Dark  pants,  striped. 

108.  Jones,  Edgar. 

Age  eleven  to  fourteen  years.  Weight 
about  75.  Height  4  feet  3  inches.  Dark 
hair.  Gray  eyes.  Dark  clothes.  Blue 
dotted  waist  and  new  buttoned  shoes. 
Pearl  street,  Johnstown. 

109.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  about  128.  Height 
about  5  feet  6  inches.  Blue  eyes.  Dark 
complexion.  Handkerchief  marked  "  E. 
Schotz." 

110.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  130.  Height  about 
5  feet  3  inches.  Dark  hair.  Hazel 
eyes.  Thin  ring  on  third  finger  of  left 
hand. 

111.  Unknown. 
Child   about  two  years  old.     Burnt  and 


unrecognizable. 


1 1 2.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  about  160.  Height  5 
feet      6      inches.  Fair     complexion. 

Brownish  red  hair.  Gray  eyes.  Dark 
basque  body.  Light  dress.  Supposed 
to  be  Mrs.  Christie. 

113.  Hnuse,  MoUie. 

Weight  about  135.  Height  about  5  feet 
9  inches.  Dark  hair.  Hazel  eyes. 
Satteen  Polonaise.      Black  dress. 

114.  (No  record.) 

115.  Owen,  William  Tumley. 

Age  about  twelve.  Weight  about  sixty- 
five.  Height  about  4  feet  6  inches. 
Brown  hair.  Hazel  eyes.  Coat  with 
belt.  Dark  high  button  shoes.  Black 
stockings. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C." 


231 


116.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  about  60.  Height 
about  4  feet.  Red  hair.  Black  stock- 
ings and  button  shoes. 

117.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  about  1 10.  Height 
al>out  4  feet  6  inches.  Blonde  hair. 
Blue  eyes.  Some  patches  of  quilt  on 
body.  One  gold  ring,  wide,  with  two 
hearts  on  it. 

iiS.  Drew,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Age  about  sixty.  Weight  about  140. 
Height  about  5  feet  6  inches.  Gray  hair. 
Gray  eyes.  Blue  striped  calico  dress. 
Gray  striped  flannel  underwear.  Plain 
gold  ring  on  third  finger  of  left  hand. 
Ideniified  by  the  husband,  Mark  Drew. 

119.  Hellriegel,  Miss  Elizabeth. 

120.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  about  150.  Height 
about  5  feet  9  inches.  Brown  hair. 
Light  eyes.  Dark  complexion.  Dark 
clothes.     Blue  flannel  skirt.    Barefooted. 

121.  Downs,  Theresa. 

Iron  street,  Johnstown. 

122.  Bradley,  Viola. 

Age  eleven.  Weight  about  75  pounds. 
Height  about  4  feet  6  inches.  Light 
complexion.  Hazel  eyes.  Calico  apron. 
Red  waist.  Wore  a  truss.  Of  Maple 
avenue,  Woodvale. 
12;;.   Peyton,  John  W. 

198  Chestnut  street,  Conemaugh  Bor- 
ough. 

124.  Connors,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Sister  of  Theresa  Downs. 

125.  (No  record.) 

126.  Downs,  Mrs.  Catherine. 

127.  Unknown. 

Female.  About  sixteen  years.  Weight 
about  105.  Height  5  feet.  Light  hair. 
Blue  eyes.  Light  complexion.  Blue 
stockings.  Blue  dress.  Button  shoes 
with  rubbers  on. 

128.  Unknown. 

Female.  145  pounds.  Height  5  feet  3 
inches.  Badly  burned.  Eyes  burned 
out.  Brown  calico  sack.  Light  dress. 
Low  cut  shoes.  Ring  on  second  finger 
of  left  hand.  Small  earrings. 
13 


129. 

130. 
131- 

132. 


134- 


135. 


136. 


137- 

138. 
139- 


140. 

141. 
142. 


143- 


Too    badly  burned  for 


Unknown. 
Sex    unknown, 
recognition. 

Unknown. 
Male.     Burnt  beyond  recognition. 

Unknown. 
Sex  unknown.     Burnt  beyond  recogni- 
tion. 

No  record. 
Nixon,  Emma. 

Age    twenty. 

feet  6  inches. 

Black    jersey. 


Weight    130. 
Brown  hair. 
Blue    dress, 
on  right   finger. 


Height    5 

Gray  eyes. 

Set    and 

Small  ear- 


Burnt   beyond  recogni- 


plain   nn 
rings. 
Unknown. 
Sex   unknown, 
tion. 

Unknown. 
Female.     Age  eight.      Height  3  feet   9 
inches.       Weight     65.     Button      shoes. 
Black  ribbed  stockings.     Spotted  calico 
dress. 

Unknown. 
Male.     Age    three.      Height    2    feet   6 
inches.        Weight      40.       Brown     hair. 
Light  eyes.     Checkered  dress. 

Davis,  Clara. 
Age  eight. 

No  record. 

Unknown. 
Female.     Age    four.       Height    3    feet. 
Weight    28.      Black    hair.      Blue    eyes. 
Mark  on  stomach  looks  like  a  burn. 

McKee,  John  C.  W. 
Body  removed  by  his  brother,  Harry  W. 
McKee. 


McHugh,  John  L. 
East  Conemautrh. 


Iron  street,  Johnstown. 


Age  fifteen. 


Unknown. 
Female.  Age  sixteen  to  eighteen. 
Weight  125.  Height  5  feet  2  inches. 
White.  Fair  complexion.  Auburn  hair. 
Light  eyes.  Brown  striped  dress. 
Comb  with  glass  beads. 

Unknown. 
Female.     Age  forty-five  to  fifty.    Weight 
160.     Brown  hair,  blue  eyes,  old  scar  ob 
neck.     Button  shoes. 


232 


RECORD    OF    MORGUE    "C." 


144.  Rodgers;  Patrick. 

145.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  sixteen  to  eighteen.  Weight 
70.  Height  4  feet  9  inches.  Brown 
hair.     Brown  eyes.     High  button  shoes. 

146.  No  record. 

147.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  190.  Height  5  feet  o 
inches.  Dark  hair.  Large  seal  ring  on 
little  finger  of  right  hand ;  set  gone. 
10  cts. 

148.  Skillhammer,  Lawrence. 

Portage  street,  Conemaugh  Borough. 
Male.  Age  eighteen.  Weight  120. 
Height  5  feet.  Brown  hair.  Gray  eyes. 
Dark  striped  coat  and  pants. 

149.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  75.  Height  4  feet  3 
inches.  Brown  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Ear- 
drop with  small  balls  attached.  Pink 
bow  in  hair.  Brown  dress  with  red 
plaited  front  and  cuffs. 

150.  Duncan,  Mrs.  J.  C. 

Woodvale.  Weight  145.  Height  5  feet  4 
inches.  Dark  hair.  Dark  eyes.  Red 
mother  hubbard  wrapper.  Hair  plaited. 
Red  stockings.  Gold  breast-pin.  Small 
ear-drop  with  set  lost. 

151.  (No  record.) 

152.  Unknown. 

From  club  house.  Female.  White. 
Weight  115.  Height  5  feet  2  inches. 
Brown  eyes.  Fair  complexion.  Long 
black  hair.  Barred  gingham  apron. 
Blue  dress.  Plain  hoop  ring,  one  set  on 
left  hand.     Blood  set. 

153.  Abler,  George. 

Portage  street,  Conemaugh  Borough. 
Age  eleven.  Weight  85.  Height  4  feet 
2  inches.  Light  hair.  Dark  brown  eyes. 
Red  and  white  waist.  Knee  pants. 
Button  shoes. 

154.  Abler,  Louisa. 

Portage  street,  Conemaugh  Borough. 
Age  twenty-five.  Weight  125.  Height 
5  feet.  Light  complexion.  Auburn 
hair,  brown  eyes,  blue  check  dress, 
blue  waist.  Red  undershirt.  Red 
stockings.     Bible.     Earring-drop. 


155.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  150.  Height  5  feet  7 
inches.  Liglit  hair.  Found  in  drift 
above  Company's  store.  Slippers.  Comb 
in  pocket.  Light  barred  pants.  70  cts. 
One  bunch  of  keys.  Two  pocket  pieces. 
Scapulars. 

156.  Willower,  Mrs.  Bertha. 

Somerset  street,  Johnstown.  Died  in 
Prospect  hospital. 

157.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Height  5  feet. 
Dark  brown  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Button 
shoes.  Striped  white  and  blue  stockings. 
Earrings  plain  gold.  Sacque  with  beads. 
Black  quilted  skiit.  Three  right  teeth 
out.     Eye-tooth  taken  off  at  gum. 

158.  Unknown. 

Foot  of  female.  High  button  shoe. 
Black  merino  stockings.  W.  K.  End- 
sley's  bank  book. 

159.  Unknown. 

Male.  Boy.  Weight  75.  Height  4 
feet  3  inches.  Light  complexion.  Au- 
burn hair.  Knee  pants.  Blue  waist. 
Little  black  waist.  Red  undershirt. 
Muslin  drawers.     Gaiters. 

160.  Unknov^'n. 

Male.  Boy.  Weight  75.  Height  4  feet 
2  inches.  Found  on  Walnut  street. 
Light  complexion.  Blue  waist.  Knee 
pants. 

161.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-five.  Weight  160. 
Height  5  feet  9  inches.  Light  com- 
plexion. Blue  eyes.  Auburn  hair. 
Blue  shut.  White  undershirt.  Laced 
shoes.  Red  socks.  Black  pants. 
Black  vest.  "  F.  P.  R."  on  arm  and 
clasped  hands  under  same. 

162.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  eleven.  White.  Weight 
48.  Height  4  feet.  Fair  complexion. 
Dark  hair.  Dark  eyes.  Red  flannel 
shirt.     Black  and  white  striped  coat. 

163.  Diller,  Rev    A.  P. 

164.  Diller,  Isaac. 

165.  Dinant,  Lola. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C" 


233 


166.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty-seven  to  fifty. 
Weight  225.  Height  5  feet  6  inches. 
Auburn  hair.  Red  and  blue  striped 
petticoat.  Red  flannel  underwear. 
Pocket-book,  $6.35  money. 

167.  Diller,  Mrs.  Maria. 

1 68.  Kilgore,  Alexander. 

169.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  three  to  four  years.  Height 
3  feet  6  inches.  Light  complexion. 
Auburn  hair.  Gray  vyoolen  sack.  Blue 
vest  buttons.  Red  and  white  striped 
calico  dress.  Black  woolen  socks. 
Black  and  white  flannel  petticoat. 
Gauze  undersliirt.      Button  shoes. 

170.  Unknown. 

Male.  Boy.  Age  seven.  Auburn  hair. 
Dai-k  blue  waist.  Blue  woolen  coat. 
Knee  pants. 

171.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  fourteen.  Weight  1 10.  Height 
5  feet.  Auburn  hair.  Gray  woolen 
coat.  Knee  pants.  Blue  waist,  brass 
buttons.     White  undershirt. 

.172.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirteen.  Weight  no. 
Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Auburn  hair. 
Blue  eyes.  Black  pants.  Black  jersey 
coat.     Blue  shirt. 

173.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  90.  Height  5  feet  6 
inches.  Fair  complexion.  Auburn  hair. 
Hazel  eyes.  Button  shoes.  Black  stock- 
ings. White  coisets.  Red  striped  body. 
White  drawers.  Red  skirt.  Plaid  skirt. 
Black  dress  and  bustle.  Plain  gold  ring 
on  third  finger  of  left  hand. 

174.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty  to  forty-five. 
Weight  200  to  225.  Height  5  feet  6 
inches.  Brown  hair.  Blue  eyes.  Light 
complexion.  Plain  heavy  gold  ring  on 
third  finger  of  left  hand.  IJutton  shoes. 
Black  stockings. 

175.  Leslie,  John  T. 

176.  Thomas,  E.  M. 

All  but  hips  and  lower  limbs  burned 
away.  Bunch  of  keys  with  lag  marked 
"  E.  M.  Thomas."  Gun  screw-driver. 
Pocket-book  and  buckeye. 


177.  Roberts. 

Gold  watch,  engraved  Christmas  18 — . 
A  book,  on  front  "  M.  H.  R."  Steel 
rim  glasses.  $65.95.  Gold  pocket-rim 
spectacles. 

178.  Unknown. 

Male  child,  about  ten  years  old.  White. 
Weight  60.  Height  3  feet.  Light  com- 
plexion. Auburn  hair.  Gray  eyes. 
Light  muslin  dress.  Black  stockings. 
Button  shoes. 

179-   Unknown. 

Male.  Age  five  years.  Weight  70. 
Height  3  feet  6  inches.  White.  Fair 
complexion.  Auburn  hair.  Blue  eyes. 
Black  knee  pants.  Red  waist.  Blue 
undershirt.     Short  stockings. 

180.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  sixty-five.  Weight  225. 
Gray  hair.  Purse  with  $200  gold. 
Breast-pin.  Black  waist.  Gingham 
apron.     $30  in  greenbacks. 

181.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty-five.  Height  5  feet 
6  inches.  Weight  100.  White.  Very 
long  black  hair,  mixed  with  gray. 
White  handkerchief  with  red  border. 
Black  striped  waist.  Black  dress. 
Plain  gold  ring  on  third  finger  of  left 
hand.  Red  flannel  underwear.  Black 
stockings.  Five  pennies  in  purse. 
Bunch  keys. 

182.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty-five.  Weight  125. 
Height  5  feet  4  inches.  White.  Fair 
complexion.  Brown  hair.  Gray  eyes. 
Black  set  pin.  Calico  dress.  Red 
underwear.     Black  cloth  laced  shoes. 

183.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifty.  Weight  100. 
Height  5  feet  4  inches.  White.  Gray 
hair.     Gold  necklace. 

Here  closes  the  P.  R.  R.  depot  morgue.  It 
was  moved  to  First  Ward  school-house,  Mil- 
ville,  the  loth  of  June. 

yune  1 1  Ik. 

184.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  forty-five.  Weight  180. 
Height  5  feet  10  inches.  Purse  and 
small  iron  key  on  a  ring. 


234 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C 


185.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  forty-five.  Weight  180. 
Height  5  feet  10  inches.  White.  Bunch 
of  keys.  ^1.13  loose.  White  bone 
handle  knife. 

186.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  seven.  Right  leg  and 
right  arm  only. 

187.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  forty.  Weight  190.  Dark 
hair.  Chin  whiskers.  I31ack  and  white 
checkered  shirt.  All  other  clothing 
gone. 

188.  Unknown. 

Male.     Aged.     Beyond  recognition. 

189.  Young,  William. 

Of  Company  C,  14th  Regiment  Penna. 
Nntional  Guard.  Age  about  thirty. 
Weight  160.  Height  5  feet  8  inches. 
Hazel  eyes.  National  Guard  uniform. 
Reported  as  having  committed  suicide. 

190.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve.  Weight  185. 
Height  4  feet.  Black  hair.  Found  in 
Charles  Mesher's  store  above  stone 
bridge. 

191.  Unknown. 

Supposed  to  be  Dr.  George  Waggoner. 
Age  forty-five.  Weight  170.  Height  5 
feet  8  inches.  Fair  complexion.  Brown 
hair.  Full  black  suit  of  clothing.  Purse 
^1.57.  Pocket-knife.  Pencil.  Several 
letters.     Large    wallet.     Tobacco    box. 

192.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-five.  Dark  red 
hair.  Dark  flowered  calico  waist.  Blue 
gingham  striped  apron.  Blue  woolen 
dress.  Low  laced  shoes.  Plain  gold 
band  i^ing  on  third  finger  of  left  hand. 
Large  door  key ;  had  been  broken  and 
repaired. 

193.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve.  Light  hair.  Blue 
striped  waist  and  dress.     Button  shoes. 

194.  Unknown. 

Male.  White.  Age  forty.  Black 
pants.  White  shirt.  Blue  vest.  Small 
key.  Engraved  gold  ring  on  third  fin- 
ger of  left  hand. 


195.  Creed,  David. 

White.    Age  fifty.    Weight  160.    Height 

5  feet  8  inches.  Silver  watch,  open-face. 
Black  pants.  White  shirt.  Black  coat 
and  vest.  ^108.65  in  pocket-book. 
Pocket-knife.  Bunch  of  keys  with  tag 
and  name.     Identified  by  his  son. 

196.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  sixty.  Weight  180. 
Height  5  fet:t  8  inches.  Black  hair. 
Gray  eyes.  Blue  calico  dress.  Piece  of 
dress.     Slate  pencil  and  door  key. 

197.  Hanish,  BlanVhe. 

White.  Age  twenty-six.  Identified  by 
her  father  and  shipped  to  Dayton,  Ohio. 

198.  Unknown. 

White.  Age  four  years.  Weight  50  or 
60.  Male.  Dark  hair.  Brown  eyes. 
Plaid  dress,  no  sleeves.  Gray  mixed 
undershirt.  Red  flanntl  shirt.  Sup- 
posed to  be  John  C.  Clark's  sun. 

199.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  90.  Height  4  feet. 
Dark  gray  pants  with  small  black  stripes. 
Button  shoes.  Red  shirt  with  white 
stripes.     Dark  striped  stockings. 

200.  Unknown. 

Male.  Aged.  Height  6  feet.  Black 
hair.  Blue  check  shirt.  Red  undershirt. 
Jean  pants.  Working  shoes.  II  cents 
in  pocket-book. 

201.  Unknown. 

Female.  White.  Age  twenty-six. 
Weight  125.  Height  5  feet  6  inches. 
Black  eardrops.  Two  black  hair  pins. 
Gray  skirt  with  red  stripe.  Blue  stock- 
ings. Bution  shoes.  Medal  and 
"Agnus  Dei"  around  neck. 

202.  Unknown. 

White.  Age  two  years.  Weight  40. 
Height  2  feet  6  inches.  Black  and 
while  flannel  shirt.  Supposed  to  be 
John  C.  Clark's  son. 

203.  Unknown. 

Female.     Weight    130.     Height    5    feet 

6  inches.  Black  hair.  Blue  and  white 
striped  dress.  Red  undershirt.  Two 
plain  gold  rings  on  second  finger  of  left 
hand.  Fur  cape  around  neck.  Sup- 
posed to  be  Mrs.  John  C.  Clark. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C." 


235 


204. 


205. 


206. 


207. 


208. 


209. 


211. 


Unknown. 
Male.  Age  fifty.  Weight  160.  Height 
5  feet  9  inches.  Sandy  hair.  Plain 
ring  on  third  linger  of  left  hand  (with 
initials  inside  "  C.  R.  1869.'")  Pair 
blood  stone  cuff-l)Uttons.  Black  alpaca 
coat.  Navy  blue  vest  and  pants.  Con- 
gress gaiters.  Red  stockings.  Pocket- 
book.  Knife  and  pencil.  ^13. 30  in 
change.  Open-faced  silver  watch. 
Heavy  plaited  chain  and  locket.  Inside 
of  locket  a  star  with  S.  H.,  words  trade- 
mark alone  a  star.  Cliain  trinket  with 
Washington  head.  Reverse  the  Lord's 
prayer.     Odd  Fellow's  badge  on  pin. 

Unknown. 
Male.     White.     Age  fifty-five.     Weight 
185.     Height  5  feet  8  inches.     Keyring 
with  Yale   flat   key  and   two   door  keys. 
Pocket-knife.  Purse  with  street  car  ticket. 

Unknown. 
Female.  White.  Weight  150.  Height 
5  feet  6  inches.  Auburn  hair.  Small 
earring,  white  setting.  Plain  gold  ring 
on  third  finger  of  left  hand.  Calico 
dress.  White  corsets.  Black  and  gray 
striped  skirt. 

Given,  Jane. 
White.     Age  twenty-nine. 
Height    5    feet  6  inches. 
Bre.TSt-pin  and  gold  setting, 
wliite  dress.      Barred  gingham.     Button 
shoes.     Identified  by  D.  M.  Given. 

Unknown. 
Female.       Head    severed    from    Irody. 
Woolen    dress.     Flannel   skirt   and  red 
woolen  stockings. 

June  \2.th. 
Unknown. 

Male.     White.     Age    eighteen    months. 

Weight    30.       Height    3     feet.       Light 

hair.     White  dress  and  skirt  plaited. 
Given,  Benjamin. 

Age     about     nineteen.       Weight      130. 

Height  5  feet  10  inches.     White.     Sandy 

hair.     Black  striped  vest.     Flannel  shirt. 

Black     jean      pants.         Laced      shoes. 

Pocket-knife. 
Unknown. 

Male.        Age     fifteen.       Weight     lOO. 

Height  5  feet.     Black  hair.     Dark  blue 

vest.     Blue  and  white  striped  shirt.     Red 

flannel  underclothing. 


Weight  120. 

Auburn  hair. 

Brown  and 


212.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  six  months.  White  dress 
with  spots.  White  flannel  skirt.  Red 
woolen  stockings. 

213.  Unknown. « 

Female.  Age  thirteen.  Weight  75. 
Height  4  feet  3  inches.  Auburn  hair. 
Blue  and  brown  striped  skirt.  White 
underclothing. 

214.  Roland,  Rand. 

White.  Age  twenty.  Weight  150. 
Height  5  feet  9  inches.  Sandy  hair. 
Dark  gray  mixed  woolen  suit.  Red 
flannel  underwear.    Identified  by  brother. 

215.  Roland,  Emma. 

Age  eighteen.  Weight  140.  Height  5 
feet  6  inches.  Light  hair.  Long  breast- 
pin with  brilliants.  White  and  black 
checkered     body.  Buttoned     shoes. 

White  and  black  striped  stockings. 
Plain  gold  ring  with  coral  setting.  Steel 
spring  gaiters. 

216.  Rabb,  Elizabeth. 

White.  Age  twenty-three.  Weight  140. 
Brown  hair.  Red  and  green  striped 
body.  Brown  striped  skiit.  White 
underclothing.  Long  gold  breast-pin 
with  stone  setting.  Plain  gold  ring  with 
initials,  "  K.  L.  R."  Plain  gold  ring 
and  earrings  with  stone  setting. 

217.  Unknown. 

Female.  Unrecognizable.  Sandy  hair. 
Red  flannel  dress. 

218.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eleven.  Weight  no. 
Height  4  feet.  Brown  hair.  Blue  and 
wliite  barred  handkerchief.  Purple  suit. 
Black  and  white  striped  flannel  skirt. 

219.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve.  Weight  75. 
Height  4  feet  3  inches.  Brown  hair. 
Black  overcoat.  Short  sack  coat.  Dark 
knee  pants.  Blue  and  white  striped 
shirt.  Button  gaiters.  Supposed  to  be 
Ernest  Mayhew. 

220.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  sixty.  Weight  160. 
Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Fair  complexion. 
Black  hair  mixed  with  gray.  Black 
waist.  Black  and  green  striped  skirt. 
Red  flannel  underwear.  Canton  flannel 
drawers.     Heavy  knit  stockings. 


236 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C." 


221.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  ten.     Weight  60.     Height 

3  feet  4  inches.  Auburn  liair.  Red 
calico  waist.     Dark  knee  pants. 

222.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eighteen  to  twenty. 
Weight  100.  Height  5  feet  6  inches. 
Auburn  hair.  Green  and  purple  striped 
dress.  White  underwear.  Two  pair 
of  stockings,  one  black  and  the  other 
blue.  High  gum  boots,  similar  to  men's 
boots. 

223.  White,  Mary  P. 

Age  twenty.  Weight  1 20.  Height  5 
feet  6  inches.  Black  hair.  Black 
alpaca  dress.  Red  basque.  Black  skirt. 
Red  underwear.  Black  stockings.  But- 
ton shoes.     Plain  gold  ring. 

224.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  eight.    Weight  80.    Height 

4  feet.  Button  shoes.  Black  stockings. 
Gray  woolen  coat.  Blue  calico  waist. 
Red  and  black  striped  shirt. 

225.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  six.  Weight  40.  Height 
3  feet  9  inches.  Dark  brown  hair. 
White  shirt.     Light  twilled  cloth  dress.' 


226.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-five.  Brown  hair. 
Button  shoes.  White  underwear.  Gold 
ring,  cameo  setting  with  full  figure  of  a 
woman. 

227.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  160.  Height  5  feet  6 
inches.  Brown  hair.  Dark  blue  dress, 
blue  and  gray  striped.  White  skirt. 
Woolen  underwear.  Wart  on  left 
shoulder.  Pair  of  scissors.  Piece  of 
tape.  Pocket-book  ^7.35.  Lead  pencil 
and  pocket-knife. 

228.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  five  or  six.  Weight  30. 
Height  4  feet.  Purple  coat  with  small 
black  stripes.  Red  and  black  checkered 
skirt.  Blue  dress  with  small  stars. 
Buttoned  shoes.     Brown  stockings. 


229.  U'nknown. 

Female.  Weight  140.  Height  5  feet 
7^  inches.  Red  underwear  Two  pair 
stockings,  one  white  cotton,  the  other 
black  woolen.  Plain  gold  ring  on  first 
finger  of  left  hand.  Gold  band  ring  on 
third  finger  of  left  hand.  Dress  alternate 
black  and  red  with  black  flowers.  Ear- 
drops with  black  sets.  Cloth  gaiters  and 
blue  calico  waist. 

230.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five.  Weight  160. 
Height  5  feet  9  inches.  Black  hair. 
Checkered  apron.  Red  dress.  Red 
striped  stockings.  Also  blue  mother 
hubbard  wrapper  with  white  spots. 
Red  and  black  striped  skirt.  One  thim- 
ble. 

231.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifty-five.  Weight  140. 
Height  5  feet  2  inches.  Blue  calica 
waist.  Light  calico  dress  with  dark 
diamond  spots.  Brown  and  white 
gingham  apron.  Gra"  skirt  with  white 
stripes. 

232.  Cope,  Mrs.  Margaret. 

Age   sixty-five.      Weight    145.      Height 

5  feet  5  inches.  Gray  hair.  Black  dress. 
Red  and  black  skirt.  One  pocket-book 
containing  two  five  dollar  gold  pieces, 
and  one  piece  of  gold  bullion  and  one 
ten  dollar  gold  piece,  one  key  and  one 
cent.  Also  another  ]iocket  containing 
three  pieces  of  old  coin,  two  coppers  and 
fifteen  dollars  in  greenbacks.  Body  re- 
moved by  her  son,  Warren  W.  Cope. 

233.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age   sixteen.     Height  4   feet 

6  inches.     Dark    blue  dress  with   light 
»             blue    sleeve.       Gum    iioots    and    black 

stockings.  Had  an  "Agnus  Dei"  ir> 
her  pocket. 

234.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  seventeen.  Weight  130. 
Height  5  feet.  Red  hair.  Green  cloth 
dress.  Blue  checkered  apron  and  white 
apron  underneath.  Gold  ring  with  red 
set.     Lace  waist  over  top  of  dress. 

233.  Jones,  Mrs.  Alice. 

Pocket  containing  papers  and  two  cents. 

236.   Layton,  William. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C" 


2c57 


237.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty.  Weight  150. 
Height  5  feet  10  inches.  Brown  eyes. 
Striped  dress.  One  plain  gold  ring. 
Heavy  black  cloth  jacket. 

238.  Ranney,    Mrs.     Rev.    J.    A.    Kalamazoo, 
Michigan. 

Age  sixty-five.  Height  5  feet  4  inches. 
Gray  hair.  Gray  eyes.  Dark  dress. 
Dark  coat.  Gold  watch,  open-faced, 
with  a  short  chain.  Blank  book.  Iden- 
tified 1 2th  August  by  her  sons,  Matthew 
and  D.  A.  Matthews. 

239.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-five.  Weight  160. 
Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Light  brown 
hair.  Two  gold  rings  on  left  hand,  one 
with  amethyst  setting  and  one  plain, 
marked  "  M.  J.  H." 

240.  McHugh,  Mis.  B.  A. 

Residence,  East  Conemaugh. 

241.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty.  Weight  125. 
Height  5  feet  4  inches.  Dark  brown 
eyes.  Pocket-book  containing  ^43.35. 
Small  plain  gold  ring  and  one  thimble. 

242.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  135.  Height  5  feet  4 
inches.  Auburn  hair.  Light  complex- 
ion. Dark  dress.  Blue  underskirt. 
Barred  underdress.  Blue  and  white 
apron. 

Jtoie  l^th. 

243.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  six  months.  Weight  25. 
Height  2  feet  6  inches.  Black  and  white 
skirt.     White  dress. 

244.  Uni<nown. 

Female.  Foot  only.  Black  stocking. 
High-buttoned  shoe. 

245.  Unknown. 

Female.  Left  foot  of  child.  Black  woolen 
stocking.     High  buttoned  shoe. 

246.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty-five.  Weight  140. 
Height  5  feet  2  inches.  Gray  hair. 
One  ear-drop,  very  strange  pattern.  Also 
e72cienfe. 

247.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-eight.  Weight  145. 
Height  5  feet  i  inch.  Light  complexion. 
Dark  hair.  Dark  eyes.  Right  hand 
deformed.     Striped  calico  dress. 


248.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-five.  Weight  130. 
Height  5  feet  i  inch.  Dark  hair.  Low 
shoes.  Dark  woolen  stockings.  Dress 
of  woolen  goods,  with  small  diamond 
figures.     Pocket-book  with  ;^6.IO. 

Jime   lit/i. 

249.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  eight.  Weight  45  pounds. 
Height  4  leet  2  inches.  Light  complex- 
ion. Blue  waist.  Light  barred  knee 
pants.  Blue  black  ribbed  stockings. 
Buttoned  shoes  and  patent  heels. 

250.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Weight  1 15. 
Height  5  feet  4  inches.  Blue  calico 
dress  with  star  figures.  Brown  skirt  with 
two  bands.  Small  coin  purse,  20  cents. 
One  shoe  buttoner.  One  plain  band  gold 
ring. 

251.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  one  year.  Weight  20. 
Height  2  feet  6  inches.  Calico  dress, 
striped  blue  and  white.  Red  flannel 
skirt. 

252.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifteen.  Weight  90. 
?leight  5  feet  3  inches.  Brown  dress. 
Red  flannel  barred  red  and  black.  Black 
and  white  barred  underwear.  Black 
stockings.  No.  5  shoes.  Diamond  ring 
carved,  one  crescent  pin,  set  with  bril- 
liants, with  star  in  centre.  One  pair  of 
ear-drops. 

June  \6tk. 

253.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-two.  Weight  140. 
Height  5  feet  7  inches.  Light  com- 
plexion. Dark  hair.  Eyes  unknown. 
Black  alpaca  dress. 
Red  waist,  worked 
stockings.     No  shoes. 

254.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-five.  Weight  135. 
Height  4  feet  10  inches.  Dark  garnet 
dress.  White  stockings,  No.  5  shoes. 
No  valuables. 

255.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty.  Weight  140. 
Htight  5  feet.  Hair  dark  and  very  long. 
Black  ribbed  jersey.  Black  dress. 
White  and  black  striped  skirt.  Lady's 
hunting-case  gold  watch  and  chain. 


White  underskirt. 
Brown    ribbed 


238 


RECORD  OF   MORGUE    "C." 


256.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  ten.  Weight  75.  Height 
3  feet  8  inches.  Light  hnir.  Eyes  un- 
known. Slioes  and  one  gum  shoe. 
Ribbed  stockings.  Red  flannel  under- 
skirt. Flannel  drawers.  Jacket  with 
flannel  skirt.  Brown  dress.  One  pair 
earrings. 

257.  Unknown. 

iVlale.  Age  forty-five.  Weight  150. 
Height  5  feet  9  inches.  White.  Light 
complexion.  Dark  shirt.  Dark  pants. 
Blown  coat.  Wiiite  stockiui^s.  Pocket- 
"    book.     Gold  ring.     Pocket-knife. 

258.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  four  years.  Weight  40. 
Height  3  feet.  White.  Light  com- 
plexion. Eyes  unknown.  Barred 
dress.  White  lace  collar.  Black  stock- 
ings. Cardinal  jacket,  with  brass  but- 
tons. Barreil  underclothes.  Child's 
gold  breast-pin. 

June   \']th. 

259.  Bates,  Mrs.  Annie. 

Racine,  Wisconsin.  Age  sixty.  Weight 
120.  Height  5  feet.  Light  complexion. 
Straw  bonnet.  Black  gloves.  One 
false  tooth.  White  skirt.  Black  dress. 
White  underwear.  Valuables,  receipt 
of  deposit  ill  First  National  Bank  of 
Racine,  Wisconsin,  of  ^60.00,  $74.23  in 
cash,  three  gold  rings.  Ladies'  gold 
watch  and  chain,  one  trunk  check 
marked  C.  562.     Breast-pin. 

260.  Phillips,  Mrs.  Robert. 

Johnstown,  Pa.  Age  thirty.  Weight 
125.  Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Light 
complexion.  Dark  hair.  Dress,  white 
and  brown  stripes,  blue  jersey.  Valua- 
bles. Pocket-book  containing  ^151.00. 
One  small  gold  ring. 

261.  McConoughey,  Mr.  Wallace. 

Johnstown,  Pa.  About  three-fourths  of 
body.  No  clothing.  One  large  set 
ring. 

262.  Phillips,  John. 

Son  of  Robert  Phillips,  Johnstown,  Pa. 
Age  thirteen.  Weight  70.  Height  4 
feet  10  inches.  White  and  black  striped 
waist.  Checkered  knee  pants.  Black 
stockings.     Red  belt  around  waist. 


June   i^tk. 

263.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty-five.  Weight  150. 
Height  5  feet  9  inches.  White.  Light 
complexion.  Blue  black  dress.  Fig- 
ured waist  and  white  underclothing. 

264.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Weight  140. 
Height  5  feet.  Blue  calico  dress  with 
white  spots.  Woolen  cloth  waist  barred 
gray  and  black.  White  muslin  under- 
clothing.    Large  ring. 

265.  Unknown. 

Male.  Burnt  up  almost.  Small  purse. 
Two  watch  keys.  Door  key  and  pocket 
handkerchief. 

266.  Unknown. 

Female.  Burned  beyond  recognition. 
Weight  115.  Height  5  feet.  Small 
gokl  ling. 

267.  Heckman,  Mrs.  Frances. 

Age  twenty-eight.  Weight  160.  Height 
5  feet.  Small  rolled  plate  ear-drops. 
Received  valuables  of  267.  John  Burk- 
hard,  guardian  of  the  above. 

268.  Knoor,  Miss  Emma. 

Jackson  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.     Age  13. 

269.  Unknown. 

Female.    Age  twenty-five.    Weight  160. 

Height  5  feet  4  inches.     Spotted  cloth 

dress,    gray  and    black.     Flannel  skirt, 

striped    gray    and    black.      Black  cloth 

jersey,  covered  buttons.  Valuables.  Two 
gold  rings. 

270.  Unknown. 

Female.      Age    fifteen.      Weight    100. 
Height    4    feet    6    inches.     Fair    hair. 
Light    complexion.       Blue    and    white 
•    barred  calico  dress. 

271.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Weight  135. 
Height  5  feet.  Dark  hair.  Plain  cloth 
dress.  Two  gold  rings,  one  pair  ear-drops. 

272.  Trendle,  John  W. 

Age  twenty-five.  Height  5  feet  9  inches. 
Striped  brown  and  yellow  overalls. 
Striped  drawers.  Large  pocket-knife 
and  five  cents. 

273.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  forty.  Height  5  feet  8  in- 
ches.  Dark  hair.  Blue  woolen  shirt. 
$4.00  in  cash. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C." 


241 


274    Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-three.  Weight 
130.  Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Dark 
hair.  Black  woolen  mitts.  Black  cloth 
jacket.  Gold  ring  with  lorm  of  woman 
on  set.     Ear-drops,  one  broken. 

June  igth. 

275.  Unknown. 

Femnle.  Age  six  years.  Height  4  feet. 
Hair  long  and  brown.  Plaid  dress, 
belt  with  two  buckles.  High  buttoned 
shoes. 

276.  Unknown. 

Femnle.  Age  twenty.  Weight  130. 
Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Red  and  black 
barred  flannel  skirt.  Blue  dress  with 
while  pearl  buttons. 

277.  Williams,  Carrie. 

Johnstown,    Pa.     Age    twenty.     Height 

5  feet  6  inches.  Valuables.  One  ring 
with  set.  One  chain  with  bracelet  with 
small  padlock  attacherl.  Two  pins 
joined  by  chain.  Received  valuables  of 
277.     Harvey  D.  Williams. 

27S.   Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  150.  Height  5  feet  4 
inches.     Scapular  around  her  neck. 

279.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve.  Weight  60. 
Height  4  feet  6  inches.  Brown  hair. 
Striped  waist,  brown  and  white.  Woolen 
knee  pants,  twilled  blue  cloth. 

280.  Unknown. 

Female.     Weight    150.      Height   5    feet 

6  inches.     False  teeth  lower  jaw. 

281.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  150.  Heiglit  5  feet  9 
inches.  Black  and  white  barred 
flannel  drawers.  Door  key.  Tobacco 
pipe.     Watch  chain. 

yune  20th. 

282.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  160.  Height  5  feet  9 
inches.  Red  flannel  drawers.  Leather 
boots.     Pipe.      Pocket-knife. 

283.  Knorr,  Miss  Bertha. 

Jackson  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Age  fif- 
teen. Weight  120.  Height  5  feet  4 
inches. 


284.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  seventeen.  Weight  115. 
Height  5  feet  3  inches.  White  and 
black  barred  flannel  skirt.  Blue  and 
white  barred  gingham  apron.  Black 
stockings. 

285.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirteen.  Weight  75. 
Height  4  feet  7  inches.  Black  stock- 
ings.    Buttoned  shoes. 

286.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  ten  years.  Nothing  but 
the  bones. 

287.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  140.  Height  5  feet 
6  inches.  Dark  brown  hair.  Leather 
shoes  with  cloth  lop.  Right  foot  and 
leg  deformed. 

288.  Unknown. 

Sex  unkno\yn.  Age  about  eighteen 
months.     Blue  and  white  striped  dress, 

289.  Unknown. 

Sex  unknown.  Age  about  eighteen 
months. 

290.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  150.  Height  5  feet 
6  inches.  Brown  hair.  Dark  blue 
stockings  with  wliite  soles.  Buttoned 
shoes,  with  patent  leather  lips. 

291.  Reese,  John. 

Son  of  James  Reese,  Conemaugh  street, 
Johnstown,  Pa.  Age  two  years.  Light 
hair.      Black  eyes. 

292.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twelve.  Black  and  red 
barred  flannel  skirt.     Green  dress. 

293.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  200.  Black  hair. 
Blue  and  while  striped  skirt.  Striped 
calico  dress. 

294.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  nine.  Weight  50. 
Height  3  feet  8  inches.  Buttoned  shoes. 
Red  knit  skirt.     Maroon  colored  dress. 

295.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  125.  Height  5  feet  6 
inches.  Black  and  white  striped  skirt. 
Brown  dress  with  small  steel  stripes. 
Laced  cloth  gaiters. 


242 


RECORD    OF    MORGUE    "C." 


y line  2\st. 

296.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  five  years.  Plaid  dress, 
woolen  goods,  barred  red,  brown  and 
green.  Blue  and  white  barred  gingham 
bib.     Small  chased  gold  ring. 

297.  Unknown. 

Female.     Brown   hair  mixed  with  gray. 
Red  skirt.     Black  jersey.     Black  dress. 
Canton       flannel       drawers.       Buttoned 
shoes.     Breast-pin. 
2q8.   Unknown. 

Female.  Dark  blue  woolen  cloth  dress. 
Buttoned  shoes.  Red  skirt,  with  six  in- 
ches of  checkered  cloth  at  top  of  band. 
^25.00  in  paper.     $1.68  in  silver. 

299.  Benford,  Miss  Maria. 

Hulbert  house,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Two 
plain  gold  rings,  one  marked  "  Sister  " 
inside. 

300.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  nine.  Black  and  white 
barred  flannel  skirt. 

301.  Unknown. 

Female.  Dark  hair.  Blue  spotted 
calico  dress.     One  small  ear-drop. 

302.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  150.  Height  5  feet  8 
inches.  Buttoned  shoes.  White  handled 
knife.  Cigar  smoker,  nickel.  Small 
piece  of  steel  chain. 

303.  Pritchard,  Henry. 

Market  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Open 
faced  gold  vi'atch.  Two  pocket-knives. 
Three  bunches  of  keys.  Three  door 
keys.  Pocket-book,  containing  ;^I  in 
paper  and  ^1.30  in  silver. 

304.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  three.  Weight  40.  Height 
3  feet  6  inches. 

305.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twelve.  Weight  80. 
Height  4  feet  2  inches. 

306.  Unknown. 

Sex  unknown.     Only  two  feet. 

307.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  seven  years.  Weight  65. 
Blue  waist,  white  stripes. 

308.  Benford,  Miss  Mary. 

Hulbert  house,  Johnstown,  Pa.  One 
plain  gold  ring,  one  onyx  set  ring. 


309- 
310. 

311- 

312. 
313- 
314- 

315- 
316. 

317- 
31S. 

319- 
320. 

321. 
322. 


Unknown. 

Sex  unknown.     Age  seven  months. 
Unknown. 

Female.     Age  four  years. 

Unknown. 
Sex  unknown.     Burned  beyond  recogni- 
tion. 


Burned  beyond  recognition. 
Burned  beyond  recognition. 
Buttoned      shoes. 


foot.       Laced     shoe. 
Light  drawers. 


Light 


323- 
324- 
325 


Unknown. 
Female. 

Unknown. 
Female. 

Unknown. 
Female.      Buttoned      shoes.      Rubbers 
;g2. 00  in  bills.     ;?5.ooin  gold.     81   cents- 
in  change.     Gold  ring,  garnet  set. 

Tacy,  Peter  L. 
35   Maple   avenue,  Woodvale.     Rubber 
coat  and  boots.     Two  feet  rule.     Pocket- 
book  with  $33.50. 

Unknown. 
Male.  Silver  open-faced  watch  and 
chain.  Three  keys.  Pocket-knife. 
Bone  tooth-pick.  $6.31.  Receipt  from 
Charles  S.  Ruth  to  party  named  Schuner 
or  Shuor. 

Unknown. 

Human 

stocking. 
Unknown. 

Female. 

five  cents. 
Unknovi'n. 

Child.     Sex  unknown. 
Unknown. 

Male.     Just  one  foot.  No.  7  shoe. 

Harris,  Miss  Winnie. 
Daughter   of  John    I.    Harris,  Chief  of 
Police,    Johnstown,    Pa.       Three    rings. 
Ear-drops.      Received  by  her  brother. 

Unknown. 
Male.     Weight    l6o.      Height    5   feet    6 
inches.     One  gold   ring,   cameo  setting. 
Two    pocket-knives.      Bunch    of    keys. 
Door  key.     38  cents  in  change. 

yune  lid. 
Murrtha,  Mr.  James. 
Murrtha,  Florence. 
Murrtha,  infant  of  James  Murrtha. 


Weight  140.     Back  comb  and 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C" 


243 


326.  Murrthri,  Frank. 

Son  of  James  Murrtha. 

327.  Murrtha,  James. 

328.  Hamilton,  Jacob. 

Pocket-knife.  Pair  of  shears.  Eye- 
glasses. $yi.oo  in  cash.  Certificate  of 
deposit  for  ^1000.00  at  John  Dibert  & 
Co.'s  bank. 

329.  Ripple,  Maggie  B. 

330.  Unknown. 

Female.     Only  her  feet. 

331.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  eight.  Weight  65.  Height 
4  feet  6  inches.  Knee  pants,  black 
ribbed.  Lace  shoes.  Blue  waist.  Black 
coat. 

332.  Unknown. 

Female.  Breast-pin,      collar-buttons, 

cloth  dress,  gray  and  white  barred.  No. 
on  grave  is  333. 

333.  Werty,  Luther. 

Died  at  hospital.  Check  marked  J.  ? 
McK.  No.  1698.  Pocket-book.  Pocket- 
knife.  No  money.  No.  on  grave  is 
332- 

334.  Linton,  Miss  Minnie. 

Weight  140.  Height  5  feet.  Heavy 
jacket  with  heavy  cord.  Dress  with 
large  pearl  buttons  in  front.  Letter 
found  on  body  addressed  to  Minnie 
Linton,  Lincoln  avenue,  Johnstown,  Pa. 
Signed,  S.  Clark  Dougherty. 

335.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  155.  Height  5  feet  6 
inches.  Black  hair.  Woolen  under- 
skirt, red,  brown  and  white  barred  cot- 
ton underskirt,  striped  white  and  red. 
Black  cashmere  dress,  with  black  glass 
buttons  oval  shape.  Plain  gold  ring, 
with  J.  L.  B.  engraved  on  inner  side. 

336.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  1 15.  Height  5  feet. 
Dark  hair.  Plaid  dress,  black,  red  and 
blue  barred. 

337.  Beck,  Mrs.  William. 

Her  child  prematurely  born  was  along 
with  her.  Weight  about  140.  Height 
4  feet  5  inches.  Brilliant  ear-drops. 
Blue  chintz  dress,  with  yellow  and  white 
flowers. 


338.  Unknown. 

Adult.     Only  two  charred  feet. 

339.  Unknown. 

Adult.     Only  two  charred  feet. 

340.  Unknown. 

Adult.  Only  two  charred  feet.  A 
bunch  of  keys  found  with  the  above  three 
pairs  of  feet. 

341.  Lenhart,  Annie. 

Short  and  stout  build.  Weight  no. 
Height  5  feet.     Fine  buttoned  gaiters. 

342.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve.  Height  4  feet. 
Knee  pants.  No  means  of  identifica- 
tion. 

343.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  190.  Height  5  feet  11 
inches.  Clothes  partly  removed,  and  in 
stocking  feet.     No  valuables. 

yuiie  23a'. 

344.  Hiser,  Mrs. 

Washington  street,  Johnstown,  Pa, 
Weight  130.  Height  5  feet  6  inches. 
Blue  and  white  striped  dress.  Red 
handkerchief.  Letter  found  on  body 
signed  S.  F.  Clarke. 

345.  Unknown. 

Female.      Age  about  ten.       Weight  75. 
Spring    heel    shoes.       Blue    and    brown 
woolen    waist.      Black    and  red 
flannel    skirt.        Hich-buttoned 


barred 
barred 
shoes. 


346.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  120.  Height  5  feet 
6  inches.  Heavy  plaid  jacket  with 
marble  shaped  buttons. 

yune  24/"//. 

347.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve  to  fourteen.  Black 
corduroy  coat,  with  two  plaits  down  the 
back.  Dark  barred  pants  and  blue 
calico  waist  with  white  flag  figures. 

348.  Hammer,  Daniel. 

329  Railroad  street,  Johnstown,  Pa. 
Pair  of  overalls.  Heavy  leather  boots. 
Pair  of  spectacles  and  tin  case. 

349.  Conwey,  Maude. 

Age  about  seven.  Blue  cloth  dress. 
Hand-knit  open-worked  sacque.  Iden- 
tified by  her  mother. 


244 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    -C." 


350.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  9  inches.  Leather 
bouts.  Tin  or  nickel  watch  safe.  Sil- 
ver huniing-case  watch  and  gold  chain 
with  charm  representing  surveyor's  com- 
pass. Leather  spectacle  case.  Gold 
spectacles.  Door  key.  Upper  false 
teeth. 

351.  Carroll,  Rosie. 

Railroad  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Gold 
eai-drops  with  pearl  selling  iu  centre. 
Gold  breastpin  with  brilliant  setting. 
Small  gold  ring. 

352.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  about  135.  Height  5 
feet  6  inches.  Black  jersey.  Blue  calico 
dress,  with  whue  spots.  Red  woolen 
stockings.  Home  knit  red  flannel  skirt. 
White  skirt.     Gum  garters. 

June  2^th. 

353.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve.  Weight  60. 
Height  4  feet  4  inches.  Brown  and  gray 
striped  knee  pants.     Blue  coat. 

354.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve  to  fourteen.  Weight 
100.  Height  4  feet  6  inches.  Brown 
cloth  shirt,  plaited  in  front,  small  plaits. 

355.  Keedy,  Harry. 

loi  Centre  street,  Johnstown,  Pa. 
Weight  150.  Dark  hair.  Fine  laced 
shoes.  Badge  of  Junicn*  Mechanics.  43 
cents  in  change.  Letters  found  on  body. 
Valual)les  recovered  by  brother,  T.  P. 
Keedy. 

356.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  160.  Height  5  feet  9 
inches.  Gold  hunting-case  watch  and 
chain  with  charm  attached.  One  wire 
sleeve  supporter. 

357.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  ten.  Dark  brown 
hair.  Weight  65.  Scapular  around  neck. 
Blue  and  white  checkered  bib.  Calico 
dress,  brown  figure. 

Jtme  26tk. 

358.  Hinckman,  Henry  C. 

Age    seven.      Weight    45.  Height    4 

feet  4  inches.     Gum  boots.  Blue  waist 

with  white  stripes.  Gray  and  black 
striped  knee  pants. 


359.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  six.  Weight  about  50. 
Height  4  feet  6  inches.  Button  shoes, 
spring  heels.  Red  flannel  skirt.  Light 
calico  dress.     Small  gold  ring. 

360.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eighteen  months.  Red 
flannel  skirt.  Red  and  white  barred 
calico  dress. 

361.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  fifty.  Weight  170.  Height 
5  feet  6  mches.  Leather  boots.  Red 
flannel  drawers.  Blue  drill  overalls. 
White  woolen  socks  Gum  coat.  One 
week's  growth  of  sandy  beard,  mixed 
with  gray.  Silver  open  faced  watch, 
Elgin  movement.  Silver  chain.  Leather 
coin  purse.  Ten  cents.  Bunch  of  keys. 
Scapular  around  neck. 

362.  Ross,  John  A. 

Crippled  in  both  feet,  and  wore  steel  leg 
supporters.     Name  found  on  arm. 

363.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  six.  Weight  40.  Height  4  ft. 
Buttoned  shoes.  Black  stockings.  Blue 
and  white  liarred  cotton  dress  Brown 
hair,  plaited  with  ribbon.  Brown  and 
white  barred  apron.  Blue  and  yellow 
striped  dress.  Also  red  flannel  dress. 
White  underwear  trimmed  with  em- 
broidery. 

364.  Jacobs,  Lewis. 

Cambria  borough.  Broad  street.  One 
pocket-book.  $i.()S  '"  silver.  Silver 
open  faced  watch.  Black  guard  to  it. 
Pocket  knife. 

365.  Hoffman,  Harry. 

Son  of  Godfrey  Hoffman.  Age  six. 
Weight  forty.  Height  4  feet  4  inches. 
Buttoned  shoes  with  spring  heels.  Home 
knit  woolen  stockings.  Brown  and 
white  spotted  necktie.  Blue  and  white 
spotted  calico  dress.  Red  flannel  skirt. 
Gray  and  black  barred  coat  with  black 
buttons. 

366.  Schmitz,  Gustave. 

Life  insurance  agent.  ^36.85  in  cash. 
Gold  watch.  No.  16518.  Gold  ring 
marked  M.  S.  to  G.  S.,  September  25, 
1887.     One  band  ring. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C" 


245 


367.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  three  years.  Buttoned 
shoes.  White  muslin  skirt.  Dress  with 
brown  woolen  waist.  Brown,  white  and 
blue  plaid  skirt.  Coat  of  brown  cloth, 
same  as  dress  waist,  with  large,  white 
pearl  buttons. 

368.  Hoffmnn,  Godfried. 

W.ishington  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Gold 
watch  and  chain.  Bunch  of  keys. 
Pocket-knife.     ^.65  in  money. 

369.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  eigh<:.  Knee  pants. 
High  buttoned  spring  heel  shoes. 
Red  woolen  undershirt.  Striped  pants. 
Black  stockings. 

370.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  eight.  Buttoned 
shoes.  Red.  white  and  blue  waist,  square, 
black  pattern.  Black  corduroy  coat. 
Black  gray  mixed  jiants. 

371.  Woolf,  Mrs.  Morris. 

Locust  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Black 
jersey.  Green  and  brown  striped  woolen 
dress.  Blue  and  while  striped  skirt. 
$7.26  in  change.     One  English  penny. 

372.  Webber,  E.  Vincent. 

Gold  watch  and  chain.  Pocket-knife. 
Door  key.  Bunch  of  keys.  Small  book 
and  papers.  Eighty-three  cents  in 
change. 

373.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  six.  Buttoned 
shoes,  soles  well  worn.  Red  cloth  dress. 
Red  flannel  skirt,  with  blue  and  white 
checkered  waist  attached. 

374.  Unknown. 

P'emale.  Buttoned  shoes.  Red  shawl. 
Lower  teeth  false.  Black  and  gray 
striped  woolen  skirt.  Blue  calico  dress, 
white  spots.  White  handkerchief. 
While  and  red  striped  skirt.  Brown  and 
white  barred  gingham  apron. 

July  I  si. 

375.  Unknown. 

Male.  Weight  180.  Height  6  feet.  No 
clothing. 

376.  Daly,  F.  J. 

Johnstown,     Pa.      Black     cloth  pants. 

Blue  coat   and  vest.     Purse  with  58.00. 

Ring  with  set  and  name  inside.  Collar 
buttons.     Bunch  of  keys. 


377.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  ten.  Weight  50. 
Black  hair.  Blue  cloth  knee  pants. 
Blue  and  white  striped  waist.  Identi- 
fied afterwards  as  Francis  Fores 
(Feiis). 

378.  O'Connor,  Rosanna. 

Red  and  white  striped  skirt.  Blue 
spotted  calico  dress.  Plain  gold  ring, 
received  by  her  mother,  Ellen  O'Connor. 

379.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  ten.  Buttoned 
shoes  with  spring  heels.  Red  dress, 
trimmed  with  lace.  Gray  and  white 
jacket  trimmed  with  woolen  lace. 
Black  hair.     Breast-pin. 

380.  Moore,  Mrs.  C.  B. 

Red  and  black  striped  skirt.  Black 
cloth  wrapper,  buttoned  in  front  to  knees. 
Buttoned  shoes.  Black  stockings. 
Heavy  black  coat. 

381.  Waggoner,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Black  dress  with  velvet  collar.  Buttoned 
shoes.  Red  skirt  with  ruffles.  Blue 
and  white  ringed  stockings.  Long 
black  lie  or  scarf.  False  teeth  upper 
and  lower.  Plain  gold  ring.  Small  ear- 
drop.    Leaf  pattern. 

382.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  ten.  Buttoned  shoes, 
spiing  heels.  Black  ribbed  stockings. 
Black  and  gray  mixed  knee  pants. 

383.  Unknown. 

Sex  unknown, 
cation. 

July  2,d. 

384.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  ten.  Red  and  black 
ringed  woolen  stockings,  home  knit. 
White  dress  trimmed  with  embroidery. 
Light  calico  dress  with  black  figures. 
Red  and  white  striped  skirt.  Buttoned 
shoes.  Ear-drops,  enameled  black,  with 
blue  setting.  Home  knit  lace  collar. 
Scapular  around  her  neck. 

385.  Oiler,  John  Esler. 

Age  about  ten.  Sandy  hair.  Black 
woolen  stockings,  home  knit.  Buttoned 
shoes.  Blue  cloth  knee  pants.  Red 
waist  with  anchor  figures. 


No    means  of   identifi- 


246 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    ''Cr 


386.  Potts,  Miss  Jane. 

Dark  dress.  Black  stockings.  White 
underclothing.  Gold  watch  and  chain. 
Gold  ring  marked  James  Potts,  died 
March,  1874.  Pocket-book  containing 
eighteen  cents. 

387.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twelve.  Weight 
65.     Blue  calico  dress  with  white  dots. 

388.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  three  years.  Buttoned 
shoes.  Blue  calico  dress  with  small 
white  vines.     Red  flannel  skirt. 


389.   Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  six  years.  High- 
Inittoned  shoes  with  heel.  Gray  and 
black  striped  knee  pants.     Black  stock- 


390.  Young,  Samuel. 

Male.  Age  about  thirteen.  Blue  calico 
waist  with  white  dots.  White  handled 
knife.  Mixed  woolen  knee  pants.  One 
cloth  slipper  flowered.  Receipt  to 
Robert  Bossett,  from  Geo.  T.  Swank,  in 
payment  of  Daily  Tribune.  One  month, 
dated  May  i,  1889.  Disinterred  and  re- 
moved to  Braddock  for  burial  by  Frank 
L.  Bridges. 

July  ^k. 

391.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twelve.  Buttoned 
shoes,  spring  heel.  Red  and  black 
striped  flannel  skirt.  Blue  dress.  Blue 
woolen  stockings.  Coat  with  fur  collar. 
Blue  and  black  barred  flannel  skirt. 
Blue  and  white  barred  gingham  apron. 

392.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  4  feet  6  inches.  But- 
toned shoes,  spring  heels.  Black  ribbed 
stockings.  Red  and  white  striped  skirt. 
Blue  plaid  dress.     Plain  gold  ring. 

393.  Hoofman,  Lizzie. 

Daughter  of  Godfred  Hoofman,  Wash- 
ington street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Identified 
by  her  friends. 


394.  Unknown. 

Female.  About  fourteen.  Light  red 
hair.  Part  of  a  skirt  of  a  petticoat,  the 
band  of  which  was  made  of  ticking. 
The  shoulder  strap  holding  up  the  skirt 
was  of  same  material.  The  body  en- 
tirely nude,  excepting  two  small  pieces 
of  skirt  or  petticoat.  Found  at  Ten  Acre 
in  the  river,  July  3d.  Buried  in  Decker's 
cemetery,  Morrellville. 

395.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  30.  Height  5  feet  8 
inches.  Full  suit  of  clothes  of  brown 
and  red  and  black  checkers.  Red  socks. 
Buttoned  shoes.  Rusty  door  key  in  one 
pocket.  Nothing  else  about  him  to 
identify  him,  unless  a  ticket  from  Nine- 
veh to  Johnstown  and  return.  Found  in 
water  at  Ten  Acre.  Buried  in  Decker's 
cemetery,  Morrellville,  Pa. 


July  Ith. 


396.  Unknown 
Female. 
Weight 
rubbers. 


Height  5  feet  6  inches. 
130.  Buttoned  shoes.  Gum 
Two  gold  rings  chased.  Gray 
woolen  dress  with  red  and  white  mixed 
stripes  and  brass  buttons. 

397.  Downley,  John. 

Residence  unknown.  Age  about  55. 
Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Weight  160. 
Sandy  moustache.  Bald  in  front,  with 
large  wart  on  right  side  of  head.  Hair 
mixed  with  gray  inclining  to  curl.  Mid- 
dle finger  of  left  hand  stiff  from  some 
former  injury.  Injured  July  4th,  on  P. 
R.  R.  and  died  from  eft'ects  same  day. 

398.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Weight 
150.  Blue  woolen  shirt.  Small  heart 
on  right  arm. 

399.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  4  inches. 
Weight  115.     White  muslin. 

400.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  10  inches.  Weight 
170.  Blue  drill  overalls.  Blue,  brown 
and  white  striped  shirt.  Gum  coat. 
High  gum  boots.  Bunch  of  keys. 
Pocket-knife,  black  handle.  Small  tooth- 
1  pick. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C" 


247 


yuly  tth. 

401.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  six.  Red,  blue, 
black  and  green  plaid  dress,  woolen 
goods.  Red  flannel  skirt.  Brown  and 
white  gingham  basque.  Buttoned  shoes, 
spring  heel.     Black  stockings. 

402.  Unknown. 

Male.  Wore  about  No.  7  congress 
gaiters.  Gray  cotton  socks.  Green, 
black  and  brown  barred  pants.  Gold 
hunting-case  watch  and  chain.  Mechan- 
ic's pin.  Rubber  finger  ring  in  pocket. 
Supposed  to  be  William  F.  Beck,  hus- 
band of  Mrs.  Blanche  Beck  (337),  years 
29.  Machinist,  worked  in  Gautier.  Two 
children,  Alfred  and  Roy,  drowned  with 
them. 

July  lih. 

403.  Lee,  Dr.  J.  K. 

Main  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Gold  watch 
and  chain  with  charm.  ^45.00  in  cash. 
Bunch  of  keys  with  checks  and  name. 
Two  pocket-knives.  Valuables  turned 
over  to  Mrs.  Lee. 

404.  Alexander,  Mrs.  John  G. 

Height  5  feet.  Weight  125.  Brown 
hair.  Buttoned  shoes.  White  ribbed 
stockings.  Leather  heel  protectors  on 
foot.  Wire  bustle.  Lady's  brown  cloth 
basque  with  plaid  front.  Lace  collar. 
Rosette  breast-pin,  black,  bound  with 
gold  and  set  with  pearls. 

July  gth. 

405.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  ten.  Black  and 
brown  striped  pants.  Black  coat.  Red 
and  black  barred  necktie.  High-but- 
toned shoes.     Papers  found  on  body. 

July   ink. 

406.  O'Neal,  John. 

Height  about  5  feet  10  inches.  Weight 
170.  Dark  brown  hair.  Barefooted. 
Jean  pants.  Gray  woolen  shirt.  White 
cotton  undershirt.  Rosary  and  25  cents 
in  pocket. 

July   1 2th. 

407.  Swineford,  Mary  A. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.  Lady's  gold  open-faced 
watch,  stem-winder.  Breast-pin.  Pocket- 
book  and  papers.  Harry  Bischoflf,  St. 
Louis,  Mo.     Received  valuables. 


408.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  4  inches. 
Weight  about  140.  Auburn  hair.  But- 
toned shoes.  One  small  ear-drop.  Blue 
calico  dress  with  small  yellow  stripes. 

July  iiih. 

409.  Unknown. 

Female.  Adult.  Auburn  hair.  But- 
toned shoes.  Heavy  quilted  skirt. 
Flowered  calico  dress.  ^25.00  in  gold 
and  38  cents  in  change. 

July   l^k. 

410.  Davis,  Frederick. 

Pittsburgh,  Pa.  Height  5  feet  8  inches. 
Age  about  thirty-six.  Killed  on  P.  R.  R. 
July  14,  1889. 

411.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  nine.  Weight 
about  fifty.  Small  earrings  with  ball 
attached.  Gray  jersey  cloth  vest  and 
jacket,  with  large  metal  buttons,  swan 
stamped  upon  them.  Blue  and  black 
barred  flannel  skirt.  High-buttoned 
shoes,  spring  heels.     Black  stockings. 

412.  Unknown. 

Male.  Adult.  Body  mangled.  Heavy 
mill  shoes.     Black  and  brown  vest. 

413.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  thirteen.  Buttoned 
shoes.  Knee  pants.  Blue  shirt.  Black 
woolen  stockings.  Gum  sling  in  pocket. 
Found  near  Walnut  street.  Height  4  feet 
9  inches.     Weight  about  75. 

414.  Unknown. 

Male.  Black  and  gray  striped  pants. 
Red  suspenders  with  drawers  supporters. 
Black  handle  knife,  two  blades  broken. 
1 1  cents  in  change.  Found  in  Cone- 
maugh  Borough. 

415.  Young,  A.  C. 

Gum  boots.  Black  pants.  Silver 
tobacco  box,  with  name  and  date,  Jan., 
1888.  Silver  open-faced  watch  and  gold 
chain.  Memorandum  book  of  slaughter 
house,  having  a  list  of  hides  in  it. 
Bunch  of  keys.     Collar-button. 


248 


RECORD    OF    MORGUE    "C 


y 


416.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  four  years.  Height 
3  feet  3  inches.  Blue  and  white  check- 
ered dress  or  apron.  Garnet  dress. 
Black  stockings  with  supporters.  Spring 
heel  buttoned  shoes.  Gold  ring  with 
blue  setting. 

417.  Cullin,  Annie. 

Cambria  City.  Found  in  residence  of 
George  Hamilton.  Small  gold  ring, 
garnet  set. 

418.  Female.     Identified  as    Miss    Girty  Rees, 

daughter  of  James  Rees,  Johnstown,  Pa, 

419.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  fourteen  years.  Weight 
90  pounds.  Height  5  feet.  Knee  pants 
brown  and  black  striped,  good.  Blue 
and  white  striped  waist.  Pearl  button 
coat,  gray,  black  and  red  mixed,  wool. 
Blue  silk  tie  with  dots. 

420.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  fourteen  years.  Weight  90 
lbs.  Height  5  feet.  Cotton  pants.  Dark 
coat.  Blue  calico  waist,  white  spots. 
Found  in  Kernville. 

421.  Female.     Identified  as  Miss    Cora   Wag- 

oner. 

422.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  4  inches.  Weight 
125  pounds.  Hair  black.  Small  gold 
ear-rings.  Button  shoes.  Brown  and 
white  ring  hose.  Blue  and  white  flow- 
ered sateen  basque.  Blue  and  white 
barred  skirt. 


423- 


424. 


425- 
426. 


Unknown. 
Female.  Hair  black.  Weight  140. 
Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Red  knit  skirt. 
White  canton  flannel  drawers.  Black 
and  bronze  barred  wool  basque.  Black 
dress.  Heavy  black  jersey  cloth  coat. 
Upper  teeth  false.  Ladies'  hunting-case 
gold  watch.  Chain  with  small  bucket 
charm.     Gold  ring  with  set  collar-button. 

Unknown. 
Male.        Killed     at     Sheridan     station, 
July  22d. 

Identified  as  Mrs.  Hart. 

Unknown. 
Child.     Age  about  one  year.     Sex  un- 
known.    No  clothing. 


427.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Weight 
125  pounds.  Striped  skirt.  Button 
shoes.  Two  rubbers.  Black  hose. 
Two  teeth  out  right  side  upper  jaw.  One 
out  left  side.  Front  teeth  good.  Blue 
calico  dress,  white  flowers.  Pearl  buttons. 
Wore  scapulars. 

428.  Rand,  Daniel. 

Male.     Died  at  Red  Cross  Hospital. 

429.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  five  years.  Light 
hair  plaited  in  back.  White  and  blue 
stripe  dress. 

430.  Female.     Identified  as  Eliza  Creed. 

431.  Male.     Identified  as  John  Lynch. 

432.  Female.     Identified  as  Mollie  Rabb. 

433.  Male.     Shot  on   night  of  5th  of  August. 

Identified  as  M.  Nolan,  of  Philadelphia. 

434.  Female.     Identified  as  Mrs.    E.    Vincent 

Webber. 

435.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  4  feet  5  inches.  Weight 
75  pounds.  Light  hair,  one  jilait  in  back, 
one  on  each  side  of  head.  Wore  heavy 
brown  cloak.  Red  dress  trimmed  with 
fringe  around  yoke.  Pearl  buttons. 
Woolen  skirt.  Blue  belt  around  waist. 
Wore  No.  11  shoe. 

436.  Female.     Identified  as  the  daughter  of  B. 

F.  Hdl.  , 

August  Zth,  1889. 

437.  Female.       Height     4      feet 

Weight  80  pounds.     Light 

two  large  braids  in  back. 

cloak.     Blue  stripe  ticking  skirt.     Green 

plaid    dress.       Black    hose.       Ear-rings 

shape  half  moon,  high  button  shoes  No. 

13.     Ear-ring    got    by    aunt,    Mrs.    Lou 

Pall.     Name  Katie  Young. 

August  (jih,  1889. 

438.  Hamilton,  Alex.,  Jr. 

Identified  by  watch  and  bunch  of  keys 
with  name  on  them. 

August  loth,  1889. 

439.  Male.     Identified  as  John  Frank,  Sr. 

August  \2ih,  1889. 

440.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  3  inches. 
Weight  134  pounds.    Brown  hair  plaited 


4  inches, 
hair,  heavy. 
Blue    plush 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C" 


251 


and  tied  in  knot  in  back.  Gold  filling 
upperjaw  front  teeth,  gold  filling  in  lower 
jaw,  back  teeth  filled  with  silver,  two  front 
teelh  lap  over.  Plaid  dress.  Blue  cloth 
panel.  Seersucker  skirt.  Black  jersey, 
large  buttons.  Black  hose.  Button 
shoes.  Lisle  thread  mitts.  Large  hair-pin. 

441.  Identified  as  Eben  Hughes. 

August  \A,th,  1889. 

442.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  4  inches. 
Weight  125.  Dark  hair.  Red  and  black 
striped  skirt,  wine  colored  skirt.  Black 
basque.  Black  silk  dress.  White  collar. 
Large  gold  button,  oval  shape,  engraved. 
Three  pair  hose,  two  pair  black,  one 
pair  black  and  white  stripe.  Slippers 
tied  with  black  bow.  Heavy  jersey. 
One  rhinestone  ear-ring.  A  round  Har- 
rison and  Morton  badge.     Button  shoes. 

443.  Bracken,  Minnie. 

Height  5  feet  2  inches.  Weight  120. 
Very  long  dark  hair,  plait  in  back.  Black 
cashmere  dress.  Black  basque.  Two 
rows  of  buttons,  one  on  each  side. 
Gingham  apron.  Black  and  gray  barred 
underskirt.  Low  cut  shoes,  laced.  Band 
ring,  engraved. 

444.  Wiseman,  Charles. 

Boy.  Two  years  old.  Small  button 
shoe  spring  heel.  Blue  calico  dress  with 
white  stripes  pleated  in  front,  and  pearl 
buttons.  Black  and  white  check  under- 
skirt. 

445.  Unknown. 

Boy.  Black  pants  with  white  thread  run 
through.     Spring  heel  button  shoe. 

August  i-jt/i,  1889. 

446.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  7  inches.  Weight 
155.  Black  pants.  Blue  and  brown 
striped  shirt  pleated  in  front,  pearl  but- 
tons.    Gray  woolen  undershirt. 

August  \(jth,  18S9. 

447.  Unknown. 

Female  child.  Black  and  blue  plaid 
dress.     Very  small  shoes.     Black  hose. 

August  20th,  1889. 

448.  Unknown. 

Male  child.     About  ten   years   of  age. 
14 


Sandy  hair.  Blue  and  red  stripe  waist. 
Gray  pants,  black  thread  run  through. 
Canton  flannel  undershirt. 

August  22d,  1889. 

449.  Unknown. 

Male  child.  About  five  years  of  age. 
Red  and  white  striped  dress.  Plaid 
underskirt.  Home-knit         stockings. 

Spring  heel  button  shoes. 

450.  Fronheiser,  Bessie. 

Female.     Age  seven  years. 

451.  Unknown. 

Child.  Sex  unknown.  Found  near 
Sang  Hollow. 

August   T,lst,  1889. 

452.  Male.     Height   5    feet  5  inches.     Weight 

130.  Black  hair.  Full  suit  of  black 
cork-screw  cloth.  Calico  shirt,  red  and 
blue  figures.  Black  tie,  red  stripe.  Red 
flannel      undershirt.  Gray     drawers. 

Home-knit  hose.  Button  shoes.  One 
dollar  paper  money.  Key-ring.  Two 
keys  and  button-hook.  Collar-button. 
Cuff-buttons  red  set.  Wore  scapular. 
Supposed  to  be  James  Muller.  Identi- 
fied as  James  Muller. 

September  1st,  1889. 

453.  Unknown. 

Girl.  Age  about  four  years.  Dark 
hair.  Wine  color  dress.  Gingham 
apron.  White  cotton  undershirt.  Small 
button  shoes. 

Septe7tiber  2d,  1889. 

454.  Murr,  Maggie. 

Female.  Height  5  feet.  Weight  100. 
Heavy  brown  hair,  plat,  and  tied  with 
black  ribbon.  Black  and  brown  jacket. 
Plush  collar.  Steel  buttons.  Black 
dress.  Skirt  black  and  white.  Plaid 
underskirt.  Men's  home-knit  socks. 
Slippers.  Rhinestone  ear-rings  ruby  set, 
two  sets  lost  out. 

455.  Hurley,  William. 

Sepfernber  ^tk,  1889. 

456.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  6^  inches. 
Weight  140.  White  and  black  mixed 
frock  coat  and  vest.  Black  cork-screw 
pants.  White  shirt.  Gray  woolen 
drawers.     Home-knit  socks.     Red   and 


252 


RECORD    OF    MORGUE    "C" 


blue  stripe  handkerchief.  Button  shoes. 
Large  buckeye  in  pocket. 

457.  Unknown. 

Female.  Weight  120.  Height  5  feet  S 
inches.  Brown  hair.  Blue  calico  dress, 
figured  half  moon  and  stars.  Pearl  but- 
tons. Wine  color  underskirt.  Black 
dress  skirt.  Home-knit  hose.  Button 
shoes.  One  chased  hand  ring.  One 
plaited  ring.     Initials,  I.  P.  or  J.  P. 

458.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  7  inches.  Weight 
145.  Very  dark  brown  hair.  Black 
pants.  No  coat  or  vest.  Gray  woolen 
shirt.  Purse  $1.15  in  money.  Gum 
boots. 

September  "jth,  1889. 

459.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  11  inches.  Weight 
160.  Brown  hair.  Plaid  coat  and  vest. 
Black  cork-screw  pants.  Red,  white 
and  blue  stripe  shirt.  Cloth  top  button 
shoes.  No  socks.  A  Wood  &  Morrell 
store-book.     Supposed  to  be  J.  Tyler. 

460.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  2  inches.  Striped 
flannel  shirt.  Blue  coat  with  four  pleats. 
White  cotton  undershiit.  Giay  pants 
with  black  stripe.  Black  necktie  with 
red  stripe.     Little  jug  charm  in  pocket. 

September  ll t/i,  1S89. 

461.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet.  Black  hair.  Blue 
cheviot  suit.  Striped  shirt.  Heavy 
gray  undershirt.  Long  black  hose.  Red 
bandana  handkerchief.  White  hand- 
kerchief with  blue  polka  dot  border. 
Ladies'  small  open-face  watch.  Three 
watch  chains.  White  handle  pocket- 
knife.  Mouth-organ.  Key  ring  with 
keys.  4  foot  pocket-rule  and  one  Har- 
monic badge.  Received  the  above  val- 
uables :  Charles  Brixner. 

September  l^th,  1SS9. 

462.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  4  feet  9  inches. 
Heavy  brown  hair.  Black  dress  but- 
toned in  back.  Brown  and  red  siripe 
bosom,  puffed  at  shoulders.  Cord  braid 
at  waist.  Elastic  garter.  Tliree  white 
stripes  iilack  hose.  Button  shoes.  One 
plain  gold  ear-ring.  One  ring,  double 
heart. 


463.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  5  inches.  Gray 
wool  undershirt.  Brown  and  black 
mixed  pants.  No  coat  or  vest.  White 
cotton  drawers.  Red  bandana  handker- 
chief. Blue  and  white  cotton  Jiose. 
Gaiter  shoes.  Key  ring.  5  large  keys. 
Gold  charm. 

464.  Male.     Height  5  feet  5  inches.      Brown 

hair.  Full  suit  of  blue  cheviot.  Gray 
woolen  shirt.  Black  ribbed  hose.  White 
handkerchief,  red  stripe  border.  Gaiter 
shoes.  Instrument  used  for  cutting 
washers  or  gaskets.  Identified  as  Robert 
Buchanan. 

September  \/^tJi,  1889. 

465.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  4  feet  6  inches.  Light 
brown  hair.  Plaid  diess  pleated  in 
front.  Two  white  underskirts,  one  wine 
color  underskirt  with  blue  waist  and 
white  dots.  Black  wool  hose.  No 
shoes.  One  necklace  and  locket  chased 
with  5  rubies,  the  letters  L.  E.  scratched 
on  inside.  One  bar  iiin.  Plain  gold 
ring.     Knife.      Button-hook,  and  jacks. 

466.  Unknown. 

Male.  Pleight  5  feet  4  inches.  Black 
cork-screw  jiants.  Blue  overalls.  Cot- 
ton waist  in  pocket.  Suit  of  gray  woolen 
underwear.  Dark  wool  shirt  pleated  in 
front.  Brown  socks.  Gum  boots.  One 
round  small  tin  plate  with  the  Elgin 
Butter  Co.  eagle  stamped  on  it  in  pocket. 

September  20th,  1889. 

467.  Unknown. 

Male  child.  Height  3  feet  8  inches. 
Black  cheviot  coat,  knee  pants,  coal 
pleated  in  front.  Wliite  waist  figured 
with  dog's  head  and  red  collar.  Gum 
boots.     Buckeye  in  pocket. 

September  2\st,  1889. 

468.  Unknown. 

Male  child.  Age  about  one  year.  Blue 
polka  dress.  Gray  underskirt.  Black 
wool  hose.     Small  button  shoes. 

September  zyi,  1889. 

469.  Unknown. 

Male  child.  Age  about  two  years. 
Light  hair.  Gray  wool  dress  pleated. 
Pearl  buttons.     White  cotton  underskirt 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C" 


253 


and    red    flannel    skirt. 
Small  button  shoes. 


Black    hose. 


September  Zi,th,  1889. 

470.  Female.     Heiglit  5  feet  2  inches.     Brown 

hair  with  large  liair-pin  in  shape  of  a 
fan  and  four  l^askeis.  Long  black  and 
while  mixed  cloak.  Black  silk  dress. 
Wine  Colored  panel.  Wine  colored 
basque,  pulTed  sleeves.  Black  silk  lapel 
bosom.  Black  cuffs  on  sleeve.  Ribbon 
tied  in  bow  around  neck.  Bar- pin  at- 
tached.    Two  undeiskiris.     Black  hose. 

Septeviber  26t/i,  1889. 

471.  Allison,  Florence  Edna. 

Height  4  feet  6  inches.  Dark  brown 
hair  plaited  and  tied  with  ribbon.  Black 
and  white  stripe  wool  skirt.  Black  jer- 
sey. Long  gingham  apron,  buttoned  in 
back,  puffetl  at  shoulders.  White  cotton 
underskirts.  White  collar.  Spring  heel 
buiton  shoes.  Black  ribbed  hose.  One 
plain  ring  set  out.  Received  the  above 
described  ring:  Mrs.  Allison. 


472. 


Hoffman. 
Killed  at  P.  R.  R. 


473.  McHugh,  Gertrude. 

Female.  East  Conemaugh.  Dark 
brown  hair.  Blue  calico  basque  figured 
witli  white  squares.  Blue  wool  skirt. 
White  underskirt.  Orange  color  ribbon 
tied  in  bow  around  neck.  Black  wool 
hose.  Buiton  shoe.  Found  in  Mill- 
ville,  in  the  cellar  of  H.  W.  Given's 
store. 

474.  Identified   as  Mrs.   Ed.   Swineford  of  St. 

Louis  i>y  her  brother,  Harry  Bischoff, 
passenger  on  day  express. 

475.  Unknown. 

Female.  Quite  aged.  Height  5  feet. 
Gray  hnir.  No  teeth.  Black  cloth  cap 
lined  with  red,  and  black  wool  cap  with 
black  ribbon  how  on  top.  White  hand- 
kerchief around  neck.  Black  cashmere 
dress.  Woolen  underskirt.  Brown 
stiiped  wool  shawl.  Lace  shoes.  Small 
foot.  Two  purses  containing  $19.45,  one 
$2  bill,  rest  in  silver,  all  halves  and 
quarters  except  $2  and  four  nickels. 
Money  returned  to  committee  on  valua- 
bles. 


October  ^d,    1889. 

476.  Kirkbride,  Mahlon. 

Identified  by  a  stencil  plate  bearing  name 
and  attached  to  a  key-ring.  Gold  watch 
and  chain. 

October  ^t/i,  1889. 

477.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  7  inches.  Brown 
hair  cut  short.  Smooth  shaven  face. 
Two  teeth  out  of  upper  jaw  on  right  side, 
one  or  two  out  on  each  side  of  lower 
jaw.  White  cotton  underwear.  Black 
pants.  Black  coat  and  vest  v\ith  small 
bar  cloth  covered  buttons.  Woolen 
shirt,  has  evidently  been  blue.  Pocket 
on  left  side.  Black  overcoat  with  rub- 
ber buttons.     Skull  cap  in  pocket. 

478.  Meldom,  Richard. 

479.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  5  inches.  Brown 
hair.  Wool  dress  mixed  goods,  pleated 
front  on  waist,  belt  of  same  goods  as 
dress.  Wine  color  lining  to  collar  and 
black  silk  facing.  Metal  buttons,  with 
square  figures  in  centre.  Black  ribbed 
hose.  Spiral  garters.  Cream  color  rib- 
bon around  neck.  Button  shoes,  size 
about  4^.  Heavy  jersey  or  coat  badly 
torn. 

October  ']th,  1889. 

480.  Unknown. 

Male  child.  Light  hair.  Height  3  feet 
3  inches.  Plush  dress.  Blue  skirt  with 
short  stripes  of  black  braid  in  front. 
Green  shirt  laced  front.  Black  wool 
underskirt.  Red  undershirt.  Black 
ribbed  hose.  Black  silk  tie.  High  but- 
ton shoes,  spring  heel. 

481.  Unknown. 

Child.  Sex  unknown.  Plaid  wool 
ski  It.  Barred  gingham  apron  or  dress. 
Button  shoes. 

October  %th,  1889. 

482.  Schnurr,  Robert. 

Male.  Brown  hair.  Height  5  feet  8 
inches.  Black  diagonal  coat  and  pants. 
No  vest.  Cotton  shirt,  brown  and  white 
stripe  with  small  pleats  in  front.  Coarse 
gray  woolen  underwear.  Heavy  cotton 
socks.     Burlap  apron.     Gum  boots.     2- 


254 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C 


foot  rule  in  pocket.  Carpenter's  lead- 
pencil.  Nickel  five  cent  piece.  Identi- 
fied by  his  wife. 

483.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  4  feet  4  inches.  Black 
hair.  Black  coat.  Black  knee  pants 
supported  by  suspenders.  Dark  blue 
cotton  shirt  with  white  bar.  Large 
upper  front  teeth. 

484    Unknown. 

Female.  Light  brown  hair  plaited. 
Plaid  wool  dress  trimmed  with  wool 
crotchet  lace.  Black  wool  hose.  But- 
ton shoes.     Wore  a  scapular. 

485.  Unknown. 

Male.  Light  brown  hair.  Black  and 
gray  mixed  coat.  Black  and  white 
striped  pants.  Black  cotton  hose.  But- 
ton shoes.  Large  bar  blue  and  white 
gingham  waist. 

October  gth,  1889. 

486.  Schauler,  Miss  Rose. 

Height  5  feet  5  inches.  Black  hair 
plaited  and  put  up  in  knot.  Dress  wine 
ciilor  v/ith  metal  buttons.  Black  wool 
skirt  with  stripe.  Brown  wool  hose, 
white  feet.  Button  shoes.  White  linen 
collar  with  brilliant  collar-button.  Bril- 
liant ear-drops.  Jewelry  received  by  her 
sister  Mary. 

October  lOth,  1889. 

487.  Unknown. 

Female.  Brown  black  hair.  Heavy 
woolen  coat  with  rubber  buttons.  Large 
buckle  with  half  moon  on  coat.  Belt  of 
same  goods  as  coat.  Barred  cotton 
dress  pleating  in  front,  buttoned  behind. 
Wine  color  skirt  with  ticking  waist. 
Black  hose.  Spring  heel  button  shoes 
with  half  soles.  Bar  pin  with  red  set- 
tings.    Chased  band  ring. 

488.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  8  inches.  Light 
hair.  Coat,  pants  and  vest  off.  Collar 
and  tie  remained  on  neck.  Blue  collar 
with  white  dots.  Separable  collar-but- 
tons. Blue  and  white  polka  dot  tie. 
Dark  wool  pants.  Coarse  cotton  socks. 
Derby  hat  and  paint  brush  found  with 
body.     Lace  shoes  with  half  soles. 


489.  Unknown. 

Male.  Very  large.  Height  5  feet  7  in- 
ches. Brown  hair.  No  coat  nor  vest. 
Heavy  wool  shirt.  Collar  attached. 
Black  pants  with  white  thread.  Leather 
belt.  Piece  tar  rope  around  waist. 
Piece  white  tape  around  body.  No 
shoes  nor  stockings.  White  cotton 
underwear  with  pearl  buttons.  Stiff  hat. 
Heavy  band  ring  with  letter  Z  and  star 
inside  on  little  finger  of  right  hand. 
■October  lit/i,  1889. 

490.  Unknown. 

Female.  Black  hair.  Height  5  feet  5 
inches.  Basque  and  overskirt.  Black 
and  gray  barred  woolen  goocl«.  Black 
or  gray  wool  skirt  with  two  broad  ruffles 
at  bottom.  White  cotton  hose,  foot 
mixed  with  blue.  Button  shoes.  Brown 
ribbon  around  neck.  Scapular.  Back 
tooth  out  right  side  lower  jaw. 
October  12th,  1889. 

491.  Unknown. 

Female.  Light  hair,  plaited,  tied  near 
middle.  Cloak  gray  mixed  wool  goods. 
Large  metal  buttons.  Apron  with  red 
bar.  Plaid  wool  dress  with  metal  but- 
tons. White  cotton  vest.  Black  hose. 
Spring  heel  button,  shoes,  half  soles,, 
heels  repaired. 

October  25///,  1889. 

492.  Unknown. 

Male.  Apparently  not  old.  Height  5 
feet  6  inches.  Brown  hair.  White 
shirt.  Brown  and  mixed  cotton  socks. 
Gaiter  shoes.  Black  corkscrew  coat  and 
vest.  Black  pants  with  white  thread. 
Red  bandana  handkerchief.  No  collar 
or  neckwear  as  near  as  could  be  told. 
Two  collar-buttons,  one  a  pearl,  the  other 
gold  plated  with  set.  One  rubber  sleeve 
holder  with  steel  attachment.  From 
pockets  were  taken  a  three-bladed  knife, 
ring,  shoe  button,  lead-pencd  with 
pocket  fastener,  street  car  check  and 
child's  china  ornament. 

October  26th,  1889. 

493.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  4  inches.  Browa 
calico  dress,  with  large  circular  figure. 
Black  lining  with  red  polka  dot.  Two- 
skirts  of  gray  and  black  barred  wool. 
Apron  of  check  shirting. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "C 


October  2%th,  1889. 

494.  Lavelle,  Michael. 

November  1st,  1889. 

495.  Schrantz,  John. 

N^oveniber  i^h,  1889. 

496.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  five  feet  three  inches. 
Brown  calico  wrapper  with  polka  dots. 
Pearl  buttons.  White  and  black  or 
blue  striped  collar.  Dark  striped  velvet 
basque  or  overskirt,  with  ruffled  fringe 
trimmings.  Black  lace  tie.  Red  and 
black  striped  skirt,  stripes  one  inch  wide. 
Gray  skiit.  White  muslin  skirt.  High 
heeled  button  shoes.  Scalloped  vamp. 
Gum  rubbers,  No.  5.  Black  stockings. 
Plated  gold  ear-ring  with  pendent 
amethyst  set. 

497.  Unknown. 

Boy,  Probably  ten  or  twelve  years  of 
age.  Red  and  white  striped  jacket. 
Black  knee  breeches  with  white  thread 
running  through  the  material.  Pleated 
underwaist. 

498.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  5  feet  3  inches.  False 
upper  teeth.  Perfectly  natural  lower 
teeth.  Green  cloth  basque.  Metal  but- 
tons. Brown  and  white  gingham  apron, 
with  collar.     Breast-pin,  square  shape. 

499.  Unknown. 

Female  child.  About  3  feet  high.  Short 
flannel  green  and  brown  plaid  with 
broad  brown  stripe.  Black  or  gray 
flannel  skirt.  Canton  flannel  waist. 
White  woolen  chrocheted  lace  around 
skirt.  Canton  flannel  drawers.  Black 
home-knit  woolen  hose.  White  elastic 
supporters  fastened  to  stockings  by  large 
black  buttons.  Brown  and  white  ging- 
ham apron. 

500.  Jones,  Tommy. 

November  2>th,  1889. 

501.  Unknown. 

Child.  Sex  unknown.  Found  at  Cone- 
maugh  furnace. 

502.  Unknown. 

Found  at  Conemaugh  furnace.  Male 
child.     No  clothing  whatever. 


503.  Unknown. 

Boy.  Ten  or  twelve  years  old.  Dark 
cashmere  Norfolk  suit,  plaited  or 
corded  down  front  and  back.  White 
waist.  Concealed  white  buttons  down 
front.  One  row  small  brass  buttons 
each  side  of  centre.  Blue  flannel  shirt. 
Gray  drawers  buttoned  to  skirt  by  black 
buttons.  Home-knit  socks.  Spring 
heel  button  shoes.  Black  handled 
pocket-knife  with  two  blades.  Medal  in 
pocket  with  three  horseheads  thereon. 

504.  Unknown. 

Found  just  below  Lincoln  bridge. 
Female.  Light  brown  hair.  Height  5 
feet  2  inches.  Canton  flannel  under- 
waist. No  upper  teeth.  Three  double 
teeth  and  one  small  tooth  out  on  right 
side  lower  jaw,  on  left  side  first  and 
fourth  double  tooth  out. 

505.  Unknown. 

Brought  from  Sheridan  station.  Boy. 
Knee  breeches.  Brown  and  black  stripe 
gray  flannel  shut  with  collar.  Blue 
calico  shirtwaist  with  light  chain  stripe. 

506.  Found    in    Stony   creek    near    Bretheren 

Church.  Little  girl.  Veiy  light  hair. 
Short  gray  flannel  dress  trimmed  with 
three  rows  narrow  braid,  one  and  one- 
half  inches  from  bottom,  also  three  rows 
down  front.  Black  hose.  Spring  heel 
button  shoes.  Identified  as  Irene  Shu- 
maker  by  her  father,  J.  M.  Shumaker. 

November  2^d,  1889. 

507.  Unknown. 

Found  foot  of  Main  street  in  a  cellar. 
Boy.  Knee  breeches  black  barred,  coat 
of  same.  Supposed  to  be  gray  flannel 
shirt.  Black  ribbed  hose,  with  elastic 
supporters.     High  top  button  shoes. 

November  2^tk,  1889. 

508.  Unknown. 

Found  in  Conemaugh  river  above  Com- 
pany store.  Large  man.  Height  near 
six  feet.  Sandy  hair  mixed  with  gray. 
Mustache  and  beard.  Cork-screw  vest. 
Black  cloth  pantaloons.  White  muslin 
or  canton  flannel  underwear.  White 
shirt  and  linen  lay-down  collar.  Bone 
collar-button.  Cuff'-buttons  ki  wrist- 
band of  sleeve.  White  cotton  socks. 
Lace  shoes  nearly  new. 


256 


RECORD    OF  MORGUE    "D: 


509 


Unknown. 
Found    near    Sheridan    station.       Small 
child.     Light  hair.     Child  not  more  than 
ten  years  of  age. 

November  2gth,  1 889. 
510.  Unknown. 

Bones  of  a  human  body  brought  from 
vicinity  of  Cambria  works. 


December  30',  1889. 
511.   Unknown. 


Male, 
dale. 


Found  on  river  bank  at  Coopers- 


MORGUE  "D 


1.  Kolley,  Mrs.  R.  H 

2.  Lonley,  Sallie. 

J.   Mnrley. 

Child  of  John  Marley. 

4.  Dixon,  Mrs.  R. 

5.  Dyer,  Mrs. 

6.  Howard,  James. 

7.  Craig,  J.  J. 

8.  Craig,  Mrs.  J.  J. 

9.  Forkes,  Rachel. 

10.  Fisher. 

Male  child  of  Mr.  Fisher. 

11.  Fisher,  Margaret. 

12.  Fisher,  George. 

13.  Fisher,  Mrs.  Margaret. 

14.  Fisher,  John  H. 

15.  Unknown. 

Servant  girl  of  Mrs.  Fisher. 

16.  Kinney,  Mrs. 

17.  Roberts,  Mrs.  Milliard. 

18.  Palmer,  Mrs. 

19.  Heffley,  Ed. 

20.  Swank. 

Child  of  Neff  Swank. 

21.  Swank. 

Child  of  Neff  Swank. 

22.  Davis,  Mrs.  Walt. 

23.  Hocker,  Mrs. 

24.  Ream,  Mrs. 

Wifeof  Adolph. 

25.  Stuft,  Wesley. 

26.  Swank,  Jacob. 

27.  Swank. 

Baby  of  Neff  Swank. 

28.  Bowman. 

Son  of  Luther  Bowman. 


KERNVILLE. 

29.  Baker,  Mrs.  Nelson. 

30.  Hamilton,  Jessie. 

31.  Delaney,  Mrs.  L.  W. 

32.  Cooper,  Otho. 

Colored. 

33.  Reese,  Annie. 

34.  Reese,  Winson. 

35.  White,  Ella. 

36.  White,  Maggie. 

37.  White,  Menlo  G. 

38.  Musser,  Charles. 

39.  Brenner,  Mrs.  Edward. 

40.  Kunz  (or  Cunz). 

41.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  fc^ur  months. 

42.  Quinn,  Helen. 

43.  Howe,  Gertrude. 

44.  Unknown. 

Female.     Large  woman. 

45.  Unknown. 

Female.     Small-pox  marked. 

46.  Evans,  Mrs. 

47.  Bowman,  Nellie. 

48.  Gageby,  Mrs.  Robert. 

49.  Holleran,  May. 

50.  Findley,  Elvira. 

Burnt  below  left   ear.     Ear-drops  with 
glass  set.     Handkerchief.  '  Lead-pencil, 

51.  Rhodes,  Mrs.  Link. 

52.  McClellanrI,  George. 

53.  Spurline,  John. 

54.  Potter,  Mrs. 

Blue  eyes.     Brown  hair.     Black   dress. 
Woodvale. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "Z)." 


257 


55.  Unknown. 

Female.  Oakleaf  breast-pin  with  three 
glass  sets.     Brown  eyes.     Black  hair. 

56.  Hite,  Mrs.  Laura. 

57.  Kroger,  Mr. 

Worked  with  H.  Martin,  Wire  Mills. 
Gray  eyes.     Black  hair.     Black  clothes. 

58.  Swank. 

Son  of  Neff  Swank. 

59.  Luchenbevg,  Rev.  John  T. 

Black  hair.     Congress  shoes. 

60.  Brady,  John. 

61.  Arthur,  Mrs.  William. 

Black  hair.  Dark  dress.  Ear-rings. 
Breast-pin.  Two  plain  band  rings.  One 
set  of  black  stones. 

62.  Roehric,  G. 

Johnstown  Mileage  book  in  pocket. 

63.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eight  years.  Gingham 
apron.  Gray  dress.  Light  hair.  Ring 
on  right  forefinger. 

64.  Bantley,  William. 

Black  hair.     Blue  coat  and  vest. 

65.  Unknown. 

Female.  Brown  eyes.  Calico  dress. 
One  ear-ring  with  red  star  set.  Age 
thirty.     Height  5  feet  6  inches. 

66.  Speer,  Mrs.  L.  E. 

Gray  silk  dress.  Gold  watch.  Breast- 
pin. One  dollar  gold  ear-rings.  Tv/o 
dollar  and  a  half  gold  breast-pin. 

67.  Unknown. 

Male.  Boy.  Short  black  pants.  White 
plaited  waist.  Brown  eyes.  Short 
black  hair.     Twelve  years  old. 

68.  Shoemaker,  J.  M. 

Female. 

69.  Unknown. 

Female.  Flat  nose.  Black  hair. 
Black  dress.     Barred  flannel  drawers. 

70.  Unknown. 

Male.  Eleven  years  old.  Black  hair. 
Short  black  pants. 

71.  (4)   Unknown. 

Male.     Nine    years    old.      Black    hair. 
,  Short  pants  with  small  bottle  in  pocket. 

Watch.  Hatchet.  Lead-pencil.  Shoe 
buttoner. 


72. 
73- 

74- 

75- 
76. 

77- 
78. 

79- 

80. 

81. 

82. 

83. 
84. 

85- 
86. 


(5)  Unknown. 

Female.  Five  years  old.  Gingham 
dress.     Red  flannel  drawers. 

(6)  Unknown. 

Female.  Middle-aged.  Long  black 
hair.  Blue  calico  dress  with  pearl  but- 
tons. Gingham  apron.  Biown  canton 
skirt. 

(7)  Fox,  Martin. 

Watchman  at  Wire  Mill.  Silver  watch. 
Four  bladed  knife.  Three  bunches  keys. 
Comb.     15  cents. 

(8)  Unknown. 

Female.  Middle-aged.  Breast-pin. 
Plain  ring. 

(9)  Unknown. 

Female.  Black  hair.  Barred  calico 
dress.  Black  broadcloth  coat.  Ring, 
marked  L  B.  or  J.  B.  B.  L  or  J.  (?) 
Ear-drops  set  with  white  glass  sets. 

(10)  English,  John. 

Blue  clothes.  Silver  watch.  ^3.90  in 
coin.  Badge  marked  C.  I.  Co.,  employ- 
ment. 

(11)  Unknown. 

Male.  Ten  years  old.  Brown  hair. 
Black  clothes,  with  patch  on  trouser 
knees.     New  shoes. 


Brown  hair. 
Calico  dress 


Woodvale. 


(12)  Unknown. 
Female.     Nine  years  old. 
Ear-rings  with  glass  sets, 
cut  in  two  at  waist. 

(13)  Will,  Mrs.  Elizabeth. 
Giay  hair.     Flannel  skirt. 

(14)  Swank,  Jacob. 

(15)  Unknown, 

Male.  Twelve  years.  Brown  hair. 
Black  stockings.  Black  pants.  Ging- 
ham waist.  Jersey  jacket.  Fourth 
Ward  Morgue. 

(16)  Livergood,  Mrs.  Jane. 

(17)  Alexander,  J.  G. 
^120.36  cash  and  valuables. 

(18)  Unknown. 

Female.  Ten  years.  Short  hair.  Gold 
ear-rings  with  five  blue  sets.  Gingham 
apron.  Barred  flannel  skirt.  Gum 
shoes. 

(19)  Unknown. 

Babe.  Eighteen  months  old.  Height 
2  feet  6  inches.     Gingham  apron. 


258 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    ''D: 


87.  (20)  Smith,  Mrs.  J.  L. 

88.  (21)  Unknown. 

Female.  Calico  dress,  red  and  brown. 
Black  stockings.  Pearl  buttons  on  clothes. 
Plain  gold  ring. 

89.  (22)  Unknown. 

Female.  Light  gray  hair.  Black  calico 
dress  with  white  spots.  Gold  ring, 
octagon  shape.     Two  pairs  stockings. 

90.  (23)  Zimmerman,  Morgan. 

Fourteen  years  old.  Height  4  feet  9 
inches. 

91.  (24)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  three.  Plaid  dress.  Red 
flannel  waist.     Worsted  coat.     ^2.10. 

92.  (25)   Humphrey,  William. 

93.  (26)   Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve.  Black  pants  and 
coat.  Blue  calico  waist.  Gum  over- 
shoes and  shoes. 

94.  (27)  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  eighteen  months. 

95.  (28)   Unknown. 

Male.  Age  seven  years.  Plaited  waist. 
Knit  stockings.     Low  shoes. 

96.  (29^  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  seven  years. 

97.  (30)  Voegeltz,  Mrs. 

Eighty  cents  in  coin.  ^2.00  bill.  Breast- 
pin. Two  small  bags.  Gold  watch 
chain. 

98.  (31)   Unknown. 

Male.  Large.  Gray  side  whiskers. 
Dark  clothes.     Paper  collar. 

99.  (32)   Rhodes,  L. 

Large  man.  ;^i.io  coin.  Papers,  etc. 
One  brass  check  No.  80. 

100.  (33)  Unknown. 

Male.  Red  moustache.  Open  faced 
silver  watch.  Congress  gaiters.  Bunch 
of  keys. 

SOI.  (34)  Unknown. 

Male.  Black  hair.  Heavy  laced  shoes. 
Overcoat. 

102.   (35)  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve  years.  Light  hair. 
Black  pants.     Toy  pistol. 


104 
105 

io5 

107 

108 

109 


103.   (36)   Ream,  Mrs.  Adolph. 

Two  photographs.  One  gold  ring.  One 
paper  needles.  $1.00  bill.  Two  $5.00 
gold  pieces. 

(37)  Fetus,  Mr. 

(38)  Owens,  Mrs.  Noah. 
Gold  head  ring.  Calico  dress.  Black  hair. 

(39)  Unknown. 
Female.     One  year  old. 

(40)  Unknown. 
Male.     Two  years  old. 

(41)  Unknown. 
Female.     Eight  years  old. 

(42)  Unknown. 
Female.     Age  twenty-four  years.     Short 
white  hair.     Gold  ring  enameled.     Ruby 
glass  ear-rings.     Buff  dress  with  yellow, 
brown  and  black  spots. 

no.  (43)  Akers,  Alver. 

111.  (44)   Bryan,  William. 

Moustache  and  goatee.     Cork  leg. 

112.  (45)   Unknown. 

Male.     Age  twenty-six. 

(46)  Park,  Will. 
Gold  watch,  paper,  etc. 

(47)  Park,  Miss. 

(48)  Park. 
Female.     Two  years  old. 

116.  (49)  Park,  Mrs. 

"7-  (5°)  Unknown. 

Female.  Large.  Black  hair.  Gold 
band  ring.     Slippers. 

118.  (51)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty  years.  Blue  calico 
dress.  Gold  band  ring.  Gas  key. 
Seventy-five  cents  in  coin. 

119.  (52)   Unknown. 

Female.  Black  hair.  Flannel  skirt. 
Gold  ear-rings. 

120.  (53)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-four  years.  Scarred 
scarf  pin  No.  6. 

(54)  No  record. 

(55)  Unknown. 

Female.     Supposed  to  be  Annie  Eager. 
123.   (56)  Unknown. 

Female.  Large.  Age  twenty-four. 
Black  hair.  Ruby  ear-rings.  Brass  hair- 
pin. 


"3- 

114. 
115. 


121. 
122. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "Z>." 


261 


Note  : — The  foregoing  123  names  reported  by 
W.  G.  Thompson,  in  charge  of  Kernville 
Morgue,  June  14,  1889  (see  list  on  file). 

124.  (57)  Howe,  Tom. 

125.  (58)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-four.  Black  hair. 
Gold  ring.    1^.  O.,  1886. 

126.  (59)  Pike,  W.  W. 

127.  (60)   Unknown. 

Female  skeleton. 

128.  (61)  Pike,  W.  W.,  Jr. 

129.  (62)   Pike,  Stuart  B. 

Age  nine  years. 

130.  (63)   Swank,  Fred. 

Age  twelve.     Knee  pants.     Music  box. 

131.  (64)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-four.  Black  hair. 
Black  jersey  jacket.     Knit  shirt. 

132.  (65)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Black  hair.  Blue 
calico  dress.  Two  gold  rings.  Break- 
fast shawl. 

133.  (66)  Lindell,  Mary. 

Calico  dress.  Breast-pin.  Charm  with 
different  metals  set  in. 

134.  (67)  Stuft,  John  W. 

Woodvale. 

135.  (68)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-two.  Ear-rings 
with  white  set.  Polka-dot  necktie.  Two 
rings,  one  engraved  E. 

136.  (69)   Unknown. 

Male.  Six  years.  Short  pants.  Dark 
blue  suit.     Gingham  apron. 

*37    (70)  Unknown. 

Male.  Large.  Black  hair.  Black 
clothes. 

138.  (71)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty.  Calico  dress. 
Gingham  apron.  Two  rings  with  clover 
leaf  pearl  set.     Breast-pin. 

139.  (72)  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twelve  years.  Short  black 
pants,  old. 

140.  (73)  Unknown. 

Chinaman.  White  vest.  Drilling  clothes. 
Oroide  watch.  ^5.15  coin.  Thirty  pen- 
nies. 


141.  (74)   Unknown. 

Male.  Age  fifty.  Silver  watch.  Gold 
chain  with  charm,  marked  "God  with 
us."  Keys.  Pocket-knife.  Sacred  heart. 
$2.56  money. 

142.  (75)   Unknown. 

Male.  Age  five  years.  Gingham  apron. 
Red  calico  dress.  Striped  flannel  shirt. 
Black  stockings.  Black  hair.  Stocking 
supporters. 

143.  (76)  Unknown. 

Baby.  Age  three  months.  Long  white 
dress.     Brown  bib. 

144.  (77)  Unknown. 

Chinaman.  Paper  with  Chinese  letters. 
Keys.  Necktie.  Pin  with  square  and 
compass.     Lead  dollar  with  hole  in  it. 

145.  (78)  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  seven  years.  Blue  suit. 
Barred  flannel  skirt.  Barred  flannel 
waist  with  round  pearl  buttons.  Spring 
heeled  shoes. 

146.  (79)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifty.  Calico  dress  with 
red  and  white  spots.  Gingham  apron. 
Crooked  legs.  All  toes  off  left  foot  ex- 
cept small  one. 

147.  (So)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  forty.  Gingham 
apron.  Canton  flannel  underclothes. 
Woolen  stockings.  Delaine  dress  with 
metal  buttons.  Ear-rings,  with  five 
point  star  set  with  glass. 

148.  (81)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Blue  calico 
wrapper,  brown  and  white  stripes.  Black 
stockings.     Light  brown  hair. 

149.  (82)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five.  Blue  calico 
dress.  Striped  calico  skirt.  New  but- 
toned shoes  No.  2^.  Black  hair.  Long 
coral  breast-pin.  Silk  umbrella  with  two 
patches  on  it. 

150.  (83)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  four  years.  Light  hair. 
Red  alpaca  dress.  Blue  gingham  with 
white  buttons.  Spring  heeled  shoes. 
Plaited  underskirt  with  edging  two  in- 
ches wide. 


J62 


RECORD  OF   MORGUE    "^." 


MORGUE    "E"— ST.    COLUMBIA,    IN    CAMBRIA    BOROUGH. 


This  Morgue  was  presided  over  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Davin,  the  Roman  Catholic  pastor  of  that 
part  of  the  city,  and  by  his  assistants.  Priest 
Davin  assured  me  that  so  great  was  the  number 
of  the  dead  brought  to  his  church  during  the 
first  days  of  June,  and  so  complete  was  the  con- 
fusion, that  he  was  unable  to  give  descriptions 
of  most  that  passed  through  his  Morgue  ;  but 
that  he  merely  counted  them.  He  told  me  he 
was  confident  that  tiie  total  number  reached  six 
hundred.  Unfortunately  Mr.  Davin  died  before 
he  had  finished  the  report  he  was  preparing  for 
this  history.  Out  of  the  records  accessible  I 
have  been  able  to  recover  only  the  following 
names  in  connection  with  the  St.  Columbia 
Morgue. 

Kratzer,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Unknown. 
Female.     Dark  eyes  and  hair. 

"Wise,  Miss  Annie. 

Ault,  George. 

Unknown. 
Boy.      Dark    hair    and    eyes.      Scarlet 
underwear. 

Cush,  Joe. 

Unknown. 
Female.       Dark     hair.       Brown     eyes. 
Check  apron. 

Kane,  John. 

Boyle,  Thomas. 

Unknown. 

Female  child.     About  two  months  old. 
Lambert,  Mrs. 
Child  of  John  Wise. 
Riley,  Frank. 
Unknown. 

Female.     Red  dress.     Blue  calico  over- 
skirt. 
Unknown. 

Female.     Supposed  to  be   Mrs.  George 

Ault. 
Schuell,  Mrs. 
Unknown. 

Boy.     Fifteen    years    old.     Dark   hair. 

Gray  eyes. 
Cush,  Daniel  J. 


Unknown. 

Boy.     About  four  years. 
Unknown. 

Girl.  About  eight  years.  Blue  calico  dress. 
Unknown. 

Female.      Blue  gingham   apron.      Blue 

drtss,  red  braid  bottom. 
Scull,  Mrs. 
Unknown. 

Female.     Silver  ring  left  hand.     Heavy 

woolen    stockings.      No    shoes.      Blue 

calico  dress. 
Unknown. 

Female  child.     Blue  dress.     Red  flan- 
nel skirt. 
Herman,  E. 
Frank,  Katie. 
Weiss,  J.,  and  boy. 
Couthain,  Mr. 
Slick,  Josephine. 
Unknown. 

Two  small  children. 
Bishop,  Julius. 
Haas,  Mrs. 
Unknown. 

Female.     Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  Pearce. 

Baby.     Child  of  Justin  O'Neill. 

Unknown. 

McHuaeney,  Mr. 

Unknown. 

Three  unknown  females. 
Riley,  Mary. 
Unknown. 

Girl.     Baby. 
Unknown. 

Girl.     About  seven  years. 
Nixon,  Miss  Emma. 
McCann,  John. 
Lightner,  James,  and  wife. 
Howe,  Gertie. 
Child  of  Michael  Hays. 
Fogarty,  Thomas. 
Dunn,  Miss  Mary  A. 
Cush,  Mrs.  Patrick,  Sr. 
Cush,  Mrs.  Patrick,  Jr. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "^. 


263 


Cooper,  Mrs. 
Colored. 

Unknown. 
A  man  with  gray  beard. 

Howe,  L.  S 
Kush,  Jos. 
Kane,  John. 
Kush,  Emanuel. 
Hester,  Ann. 
Harringan,  Ella. 
Child  of  John  P.  Hitch. 
Brady,  John. 
Unknown. 
Woman. 

Jockell,  James. 
Fisher,  Amy. 
New,  Frank. 
King,  Mrs.  S.  F. 
Shaefler,  Jacob  Sr. 
Child  of  John  Jones. 
Bronson,  Charles  R. 
Johnson,  Mrs.  John. 
Johnson,  John. 
Pennell,  Eldiidge. 
Ross,  Jos.  • 

Unknown. 

Two. 
Unknown. 

Lady. 
Fink,  Mrs.  Mary. 
Smith,  Mrs.  John. 
Sharpen,  Jacob,  Jr. 
Holmes,  Mrs.  Eliza. 

Unknown. 
Plain    gold   ring   with  S.    T.  How   on. 
One    ring    with    red    set.     Dark    hair. 
Weight  135. 

Garber. 

Penninger,  Mrs. 
Frank,  Miss. 
Kurtz,  Mrs.  Mary. 
Kurtz,  Mrs.  Catharine. 
Lambert,  Mrs.  Ann. 
Schnell,  Mr. 
CoUohen,  Mr.  Frank. 


Albetter,  Mr. 

Youst,  Edward. 
A  boy. 

Wise,  Mrs.  Martin. 
Cambiske,  Mrs. 
Cambiske,  John. 
Cambiske,  Mrs. 
Smith,  Mis. 
Holtznian,  Joseph. 

Unknown. 
Lady. 

Warren,  Wm. 
Morgan. 

Unknown. 
Two. 

Korass,  Mrs.  N. 
Smith,  Mr.  Thomas. 
Creg,  Catharine. 
Goleghter,  Thos. 
McConaghy,  Jas.  P. 
Smith,  Robt. 
Smith,  John. 

Unknown. 

Three. 
Shebaugh,  Mrs. 
Smith,  William. 
Ferdinan,  M.  W. 
Unknown. 
Berkshire,  Ross. 
Evans,  Maggie. 
Evans,  Daisy. 
Unknown. 

Five  children. 
Kerlin,  Frank. 
Kerlin,  Edward. 
Unknown. 
Malcom,  Cora. 
Madam,  John. 
Barkly,  George. 
Skinner,  John. 

Worthington,  Mrs.  R.,  and  child> 
Stern,  Bella. 
Briscelle,  Jessie. 
Heaff.  Mr. 


264 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "F. 


Monteverde,  Mr.,  and  two  children. 

Osage,  Christ.  , 

Williams,  P. 

Overdorff,  Isaac. 

Knoble,  Leonard. 

Knoble,  John. 

Cole,  John. 

Pheby,  Barney. 

Sheiver,  George. 

Sheiver,  Neil. 

Plumer,  Alvin. 

Kelly,  Charles. 

Overdorff,  J.  R. 

Wise,  Mart. 

Stinsman,  Jos. 

Yocum,  Sam. 

Oiler,  George. 

Overdorff,  Jacob. 


Unknovifn. 
Female.    Light  complexion.     Dark  hair. 
Two  gold  rings.     One  with  set  and  the 
other    with  inscription,     IVill  to    Mary, 
Age  twenty-one.     Had  ear-rings. 

Hennings,  Mary. 

Maden,  Mame. 

Kerlin,  Mrs.  Mary,  and  husband. 

Hennings,  John. 

Berkebile,  Malin. 

Edwards,  Levi. 

Mozo,  Thos. 

Bagley,  Wm. 

Rainbough,  Henry. 

Tomb,  Chas. 

Davis,  Mr. 

Thomas,  Mr. 

Crage,  Annie. 


MORGUE    "F"— MORRELLVILLE. 


As  in  the  early  management  of  the  "  E"  or 
Cambria  Morgue,  so  also,  in  that  of  the  "  F"  or 
Morrellville  Morgue,  little  system  seemed  to 
have  been  attained.  Owing  to  the  confusion, 
the  piled-uj)  debris  and  the  swollen  streams  the 
superintendent  of  Morgues  could  not  reach  the 
place  for  several  days.  At  Morrellville  a  saloon 
was  appropriated  for  Morgue  purposes,  and  dif- 
ferent persons  whose  names  could  not  be  learned 
at  first  directed  its  affairs.  The  following, 
though,  like  Cambria,  very  imperfect,  is  all  the 
superintendent  was  able  to  secure. 

1.  Keland,  Frank. 

2.  Keland,  Frank,  Jr. 

3.  Dolan,  Catherine. 

4.  Fisher,  Emma. 

5.  Arms,  Nicholas. 

6.  Caul,  Mary. 

7.  Kinner,  Lizzie. 

8.  Welsh,  Thos. 

9.  Mirkay,  August. 

10.  Thurn,  Levi. 

11.  Purse,  Mary  Ann. 

12.  Shelden.  H. 


13.  Strauss,  Chas.  (child). 

14.  Temple,  Levy. 

15.  Nue,  Elinore. 

16.  Heiner,  August  (Mrs.) 

17.  Newel,  August. 

18.  Unknown. 

Man. 

19.  Unknown. 

Woman. 

20.  Boyle,  Chas. 

21.  Jenkins,  Thos. 

22.  Reese,  Sarah. 

23.  Thomas,  John. 

24.  Myres,  Chas. 

Druker's  Cemetery. 

25  (i).  Nadi,  Frank. 

Perhaps  Frank  Wear. 

25  (2).  Unknown. 

26.  Unknown. 

Female.     Aged  about  five  years.     Rec' 
flannel  skirt.     Weight  about  45  pounds. 


RECORD    OF  MORGUE 


265 


27.  Unknown. 

Female.  Height  3  feet  2  inches.  Age 
five  or  six  years.  Weight  about  45 
lbs.  Red  flannel  underwear.  Black 
stockings.  White  skirt.  Cotton  under- 
shirt.    Heavy  red  wool  coat. 

28.  Unknown. 

Male.  Height  5  feet  6  inches, 
hair.  Age  twenty-one  years, 
pants.     No  shirt.     Laced  shoes. 

29.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirteen.  Light 
waist  with  oval  brass  buttons, 
black  stocking  and  one  button 
Buried  in  Morrellville. 


Brown 
Dark 


cloth 

One 

shoe. 


30.  Unknown. 

Female.  Aged  about  thirteen  months. 
Weight  about  1 5  pounds.  Black  and 
white  striped  dress  with  a  black  cross 
stripe. 

The  responsible  persons  at  this  Morgue  report 
me  that  there  were  sixty-one  additional  un- 
known bodies  of  which,  owing  to  the  confusion 
and  the  necessity  of  immediate  interment,  no 
description  could  be  given.  Squire  Ambrose 
held  inquests  over  many  of  the  bodies,  and  se- 
cuiv.cl  a  depot  for  the  valuables  found  on  the  per- 
sons of  the  drowned. 


MORGUE  "G"— NINEVEH  AND  OLD  NINEVEH. 


1.  Fritz,   Katie,   Railroad  street,  Johnstown, 

Pa. 

2.  Fritz,  Maggie,  Railroad  street,  Johnstown, 

Pa. 

3.  Gold,   Miss    H.,    Railroad    street,   Johns- 

town, Pa. 

4.  Albetter,  Miss,  Cambria  City. 

5.  Sheetz,  Jacob,  Conemaugh,  Pa. 

6.  Oswald,  Charles,  Johnstown,  Pa,. 

7.  Viering,  Mrs.  H.,  Johnstown,  Pa. 

8.  Clark,  Thomas,  Johnstown,  Pa. 

9.  Fitzharris,  Mrs.,  Johnstown,  Pa. 

10.  Maclay,  Mrs.  Sarah,  Market  street,  Johns- 

town, Pa. 

11.  Davis,  Mrs.  P.,  Johnstown,  Pa. 

12.  Greenwood,  Jennie,  Cambria  City,  Pa. 

13  (i).   Mauser  or  Moses,  Miss  or  Mrs.,  No. 

59  Conemaugh  street,  Johnstown,  Pa. 
13  (2).  Deformed  foot,  high  heel  on  shoe. 

14.  Female  aged  forty,  supposed   to  be  Mrs. 

Gust  M'Cue,  Conemaugh,  Pa. 

15.  Cornelison,  Mrs.  Maggie. 

16.  Saylor,  Henry. 

17.  Gust,  Edward. 

18.  Witch,  Frank. 

19.  Dignan,  Mrs. 

20.  Wolford,  Frank. 

21.  Evans,  Katie. 

22.  Hubburt,  Bryan,  Market  street. 


23.  Garber,  Mrs.  John. 

24.  Anthony,  Frank. 

25.  Unknown  male,  full  grown. 

26.  Shonenviskie,  Miss. 

27.  Hunkey,  Miss. 

28  (i).  Sauerbrieskie,  John. 

28  (2).  Mr.  Haunerer. 

28  (3).  Samuel    M'Claran,     Buried    at    New- 
Florence. 

29.  Unknown. 
Male.     Af 
tache. 


e   about   forty.      Light   mus- 


30.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty-five.  Black  hair 
slightly  gray. 

31.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  about  twenty.     Dark  hair. 

32.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty.  Gold  filled  teeth. 
Two  rings. 

33.  Dobbins,  J.  R. 

Age  four  years.   Light  hair  slightly  gray. 

34.  Unknown. 

Male.  Aged  twenty-five.  Large  very 
light  mustache. 

35.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eighteen.  Light  hair. 
Plain  ear-rings.  Plain  ring  on  finger  of 
right  hand. 


266 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "G." 


36.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  twenty-one.  Sandy 
hair.     Very  light  mustache. 

37.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  forty-five  years. 
Light  hair  slightly  gray.     Large  mouth. 

38.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  forty-five.  Large. 
Light  hair  turning  gray.  Plain  ear- 
rings.    Small  plain  ring  on  left  hand. 

39.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  fifteen.  Light  hair.  Watch 
No.  I  on  person. 

40.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twenty.  Very  large. 
Liglit  brown  hair. 

41.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  about  fifty. 

42.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twenty-two.  Light 
brown  hair.  Left  incisor  tooth  broken. 
Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  White. 

43.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twenty-five.  Tall 
and  slender.  Light  hair.  Breast-pin 
shape  of  star. 

44.  Rubeits. 

Male.  Age  sixty-five.  Upper  part  of 
face  shaven,  also  upper  part  of  lower  lip. 
Heavy  gray  beard  on  lower  part  of  face. 
Long  shaggy  eyebrows. 

45.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twenty.  Brown 
hair.     Fancy  ear-rings  with  sets. 

46.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  fifty.  Light  hair 
partly  gray.  Silver  ring  and  gold  ring 
on  second  finger  of  left  hand. 

47.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  four  years. 

48.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty.  Tall. 
Brown  hair. 

49.  Jones,  Mrs.  E.  W. 

Vine  street,  Johnstown,  Pa.  Large.  Age 
about  forty-five.     Black  hair. 

50.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  sixteen  months. 

51.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  sixty  years.  Large. 
Brown  gray  hair. 


52.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  twenty.     Full  face. 

Light  hair. 
53   (l).   Unknown. 

Female.     Age   about    fifty.       Iron   gray 

hair.     Short  full  face. 

53  (2).   Frederick,  Mrs. 

Age  forty.  Catholic.  Large.  Full 
face.  Light  brown  hair.  Plain  gold 
ring  on  third  finger  of  left  hand.  Taken 
back  to  Johnstown,  Pa. 

54  (l).   M'Arrery,  Mrs. 

Wife  of  Neal    M'Arreny.     Souvenir  of 
Father  Hollinger's  scapular.     Two  plain 
hoop  rings  on  third  finger  of  left  hand. 
54  (2).   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifty.  Catholic.  Light 
brown  hair,  slightly  gray.  Front 
teeth  wide  apart  and  protruding. 

55.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  thirty-five.  Catholic. 
Height  5  feet  7  inches.  Black  hair  and 
mustache.  Supposed  to  be  James  Haltz- 
man. 

56.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eighteen.  Catholic. 
I-ight  brown  hair.  Ear-rings  with  brill- 
iants. 

57.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eighteen.  Catholic. 
Light  brown  hair.  Supposed  to  be 
Maggie  Hipp. 

58.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty.  Tall  and 
large.  Light  brown  hair.  Ring  on 
third  finger  of  left  hand  with  set. 

59.  Unknown. 

Little  boy.  Age  about  four  years. 
Medal  with  initials  J.  W.  O. 

60.  Unknown. 

Little  girl.     Age  about  ten  years. 

61.  Unknown. 

Girl.  Age  about  eight  years  old.  Sup). 
posed  to  be  Sarah  Wengle. 

62.  Unknown. 

Girl  about  ten  years. 

63.  Unknown. 

Girl  about  six  years. 

64.  Unknown. 

Girl  about  five  years. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE    "G^." 


2;J7 


65.  Unknown. 

Boy  about  nine  years. 

66.  Unknown. 

Boy  about  six  years. 

67.  Unknown. 

Cliild  about  seven  months. 

68.  Unknown. 

Boy  about  two  and  a  half  years. 

69.  Unknown. 

Boy  about  four  years. 

70.  Unknown. 

Child  about  two  years. 

71.  Unknown. 

Child  about  one  year. 

72.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  thirty-five.  Black 
hair.     Smooth  face. 

73.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  four  years.  Full  face. 
Supposed  to  be  Walter  Jones.  Disin- 
terred and  found  not  to  be  Walter  Jones. 

74.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  twenty.  Light  hair. 
Smooth  face. 

75.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  thirty-five. 

76.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  nineteen.  Black 
hair.  Set  band  ring  on  third  finger  of 
left  hand. 

77.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  forty.  Red  hair  and 
mustache. 

78.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty-five.  J^arge 
gold  ring  on  third  finger  of  left  hand. 

79.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  thirty-five.     Black  hair. 

80.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  about  ten  years. 

81.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  twenty-five.  Cath- 
olic. Stout.  Brown  hair.  Band  ring 
on  third  finger  of  right  hand,  hoop  ring 
on  left  hand. 

82.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirteen.  Light 
sandy  hair.     Freckled. 


83.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty.  Dark  hair. 
Large  plain  band  ring  on  third  finger  of 
right  hand. 

84.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  forty.  Large. 
Heavy  sandy  hair.     Red  nmstache. 

85.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-two.  Catholic, 
Rather  slender.  Bro\-.n  hair.  Wore 
black  belt  with  double  clasp. 

86.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  seven  years.     Light  hair. 

87.  Unknown. 

Boy.    Age  three  years.     Sandy  hair. 

88.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  nine  years.     Dark  hair. 

89.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  nine  years.     Light  hair. 

90.  Unknown. 

Child.     Light  hair. 

91.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  four  years. 

92.  Unknown. 

Gill.     Age  four  years.     Dark  hair. 

93.  Unknown. 

Baby.     Age  two  years.     Red  hair. 

94.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  two  years. 

95.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  two  years. 

96.  Unknown. 

Boy  two  years.  Supposed  to  be  Mr. 
Bridije's  child.  Cambria  City.  Father 
a  letter  carrier. 


97- 

Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  four  years. 

98. 

Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  four  years. 

99. 

Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  five  years. 

100. 

Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  ;even  years. 

lOI. 

Unknown. 

Child.     Age  five  years. 

102. 

Unknown. 

Gill.     Age  two  years.     Golden  hai 

103. 

Unknown. 

Girl.     An  infant. 

268 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE 


104.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  five  years. 

105.  Unlcnown. 

Boy.     Age  ten  years. 

106.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  eight  years. 

107.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  eight  years. 

108.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  six  years.     Light  hair. 

109.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  six  years. 
no.  Unknown. 

Babe.  Age  eight  months.  Found  with 
Mrs.  Nitche. 

111.  Unknown. 

Boy  baby.     Age  eight  months. 

112.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  one  year. 

113.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  twenty-five.  Black 
hair,  smooth  face. 

114.  Unknown. 

Female.  Supposed  to  be  the  daughter 
of  Daniel  Convery,  of  Greensburg,  Pa. 

115.  Gussie,  Miss. 

Age  twenty.     Heavy  set.     Light  hair. 

116.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  eight  months. 

117.  Unknown. 

Child.  Age  about  twelve.  Dark  hair. 
Brown  eyes.  Supposed  to  be  child  of 
John  Thomas. 

118.  Unknown. 

Baby.  Age  six  months.  Gold  band 
ring  on  third  finger  of  left  hand. 

119.  Kidd,  Joshua,  Johnstown,  Pa. 

120.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  about  three  months. 

121.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  about  eight  months. 

122.  Hammer,  Mr. 

A  mill  man.     Johnstown,  Pa. 

123.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  four  years.     Light  complex- 
ion. 
V24.   Unknown. 

Boy.  Age  about  three  years.  Supposed 
to  be  son  of  Andrew  Baker,  Johnstown, 
Pa 


125.  Unknown. 

Man.     Age  fifty.     Bald  head. 

126.  Unknown. 

Woman  and  child.  Age  of  woman  45. 
Long  gold  breast-pin.  Dark  hair  mixed 
with  gray. 

127.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  eighteen.  Dark 
hair.  Small  ring  on  third  finger  of  left 
hand. 

128.  Unknown. 

Baby.     Age  about  three  years. 

129.  Unknown. 

Boy  baby.     Age  about  6  months. 

130.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  about  eleven  years. 

131.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  about  ten  years. 

132.  Unknown. 

Girl.  Age  about  ten  years.  Dark  brown 
hair. 

133.  Unknown. 

Boy.  Age  about  two  years.  Yellow 
hair. 

134.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  one  year. 

135.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifty-five.  Catholic. 
Gray  hair. 

136.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  four  years.     Dark  hair. 

137.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  four  years.     Blonde  hair. 

138.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  twenty-two.     Dark  hair. 

139.  Wagoner,  Henry. 

Cambria  City. 

140.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  five  years.     Light  hair. 

141.  Unknown. 

Age  thirty.     Brown  hair. 

142.  Unknown. 

Baby.     Age  four  months. 

143.  Unknown. 

Girl.     Age  eight  years.     Brown  hair. 

144.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  two  months. 


RECORD    OF   MORGUE 


271 


145.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  twenty-two.  Brown 
mustache.  Brown  badge,  O.  O.  S.  of 
A.  One  band  ring  on  finger  of  right 
hand. 

146.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  four  years.     Reddish  hair. 

147.  Greenwood,  Maggie. 

Cambria  City. 

148.  Unknown. 

Child.     Age  two  months. 

149.  Unknown. 

Girl.  Age  two  and  a  half  years.  Light 
hair. 

150.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  thirty-five.  Brown  hair. 
Supposed  to  be  George  B.  Sutliff,  Craw- 
ford county,  Pa. 

151.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  fifty-five.  Dark  hair  and 
stubby  beard  mixed  with  gray. 

152   (i).   Evans,  Mrs. 

Cambria  City. 
152   (2).  Shiptman,  Tony. 

Cambria  City. 

153.  Mashton,  David. 

Johnstown,  Pa.  Brought  from  Indiana 
Co.,  Pa. 

154.  Unknown. 

Gill  baby.     Age  two  weeks. 

155.  Unknown. 

Boy.     Age  twelve  or  thirteen  years. 

156.  Workeestin. 

Female.     Age  twenty.     Full  face. 

157.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  sixty.  Wore  truss 
and  had  false  teeth. 

158.  Unknown. 

Child.      Age  about  eighteen  months. 

This  is  the  last  of  the  six  Indiana  Co., 
Pa.,  bodies  Nos.  153,  154,  155,  156,  157, 
158. 

159.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty.  Medium  build. 
Full  face. 

160.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  thirty-eight.     Right 
wrist  badly  scarred  and  crippled  at  one 
time.     Supposed  to  be  enciente. 
15 


161.  Stinson,  Eliza.    -. 

Nonistown,  Pa. 

162.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  fourteen.  Black 
hair.  Scar  on  side  of  face.  Red  and 
black  flannel  skirt.  Wore  a  sacque. 
Blue  stripe  stockings. 

163.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  fifty.  Weight 
about  150.  Hair  half  gray.  Forehead 
slightly  narrow.  Teeth  short  and  dark. 
Collar  with  scapular  and  cross  crape 
around  it.  Wore  blue  calico  dress. 
Large  waist.  Supposed  to  be  Mrs. 
Griffin. 

164.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  fifty-five.  Gutta- 
percha comb  holding  heavy  head  of 
black  hair.  Six  front  teeth  in  lower 
jaw.  One  broken.  Full  face,  large 
forehead.  Large  upper  teeth,  front 
second  tooth  on  left  side  broken  or  re- 
moved. Large  carved  gold  ring  on  third 
finger  of  left  hand.  Ring  in  possession 
of  J.  W.  YountT,  clerk  of  County  Com- 
missioners, of  Westmoreland  county,  Pa. 
Supposed  to  be  Mrs.  John  Oswald. 

165.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  sixteen  years. 
Height  5  feet  i  inch.  Light  brown  hair. 
Large  front  teeth  not  close  together. 
One  ring.  Ring  in  possession  of  J.  W. 
Young,  clerk  of  County  Commissioners 
of  Westmoreland  county,  Pa. 

166.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  sixty  or  sixty-five.  Full 
beard  three-fourths  gray.  Top  of  head 
bald.  No  teeth  above.  Below  stomach 
teeth  and  two  side  teeth.  Supposed  to 
be  William  Owens. 

167.  Schry,  William. 

Taken  home  to  Johnstown,  Pa. 

1 68.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  nine  years.  Light 
brown  hair.  Handsome  fine  features. 
Supposed  to  be  the  daughter  of  Jacob 
Babb. 

169.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  sixty-nine.  Light  hair. 
Cow-lick  on  right  forehead.  Fair  com- 
plexion.    Heavy  nose. 


272 


RECORD     OF   MORGUE    "6^." 


170.  Unknovvn.  „ 

Female.  Age  a'out  forty.  Dark  hair. 
Medium  build.  Height  5  feet  4  inches. 
Button     gaiters.  Common     gingham 

apron. 

171.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty-six.  Black 
hair.  Very  heavy  build.  Two  strips  of 
muslin  tied  around  the  body. 

172.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  thirty-five.  Full 
face.     Heavy  build.     Black  hair. 

173.  Unknovvn. 

Male.  Age  about  fifty.  Large  broad 
face.  Dark  hair.  Full  face.  German 
look.     Sandy  mustache  and  goatee. 

174.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twenty.  Light  brown  hair, 
cut  very  short. 

175.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Very  fair  and 
fine  looking.  Extremely  heavy  golden 
hair. 

176.  Unknown. 

Male.  ■  Age  forty  or  forty-five.  Weight 
about  225.  Red  or  sandy  hair.  Large 
full  face.  Cut  in  upper  lip.  Small  red 
mustache. 

177.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  about  four  years.  Red  hair. 
Two  red  skirts.  Blue  striped  calico 
dress.  Black  ribbed  hose.  Buttoned 
shoes,  tipped  spring  heels. 

178.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  fifty  or  fifty-five.  Iron  gray 
whiskers  and  mustache.  Supposed  to 
be  Richard  Worthington,  a  laborer,  judg- 
ing by  receipts  found  on  his  person. 
Receipts  at  Greensburg,  Pa. 

179.  Unknown. 

Age  three  years.     In  bad  condition. 

180.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five  or  thirty. 
Ring  on  finger.     Earring. 

181.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty.  Breast-pin. 
Large  waist,  golden  spotted. 

182.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  five  years.  Sandy  hair. 
Checkered  waist.  Ribbed  knee  pants. 
Red  underskirt.  Black  stockings  darned 
in  both  heels. 


Two 
with 
Mr. 


Large. 


thirty. 


183.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  three  years.     Sandy  hair. 

184.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  ten  years.  Red  under- 
wear. Blue  waist.  Button  shoes.  Dark 
hair.     Full  face. 

185.  Unknown. 

Female.      Age     fourteen     years, 
gold    rings    on    right    hand.     One 
two   hearts,  olhec  with   three   sets. 
Young,  the  clerk,  has  the  rings. 

186.  Unknown. 

Male.     Age  fifteen.     Hair  lip. 

187.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  forty-five  to  fifty. 
Weight  180  to  200.     Light  hair. 

188.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five  to 
Earring.  Black  jersey.  Blue  and  white 
calico  dress  striped,  sample  retained. 
Weight  165  to  175.  Unusual  heavy 
head  of  hair. 

189.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five.  Height  5 
feet  4  inches.  Black  hair.  Rather  small 
face.  Striped  black  and  white  skirt, 
pleated  front  and  pearl  buttons.  Two 
gold  band  rings.  Rings  in  possession 
of  R.  B.  Rodgers.     Enciente. 

190.  Unknown. 

Girl    baby.       Age 
Very  bad  condition, 
at  Tunnellton,  Pa. 

191.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eight  or  nine.  Dark  hair. 
Red  dress.  Bright  steel  buttons.  White 
and  black  barred  flannel  skirt.  Buttoned 
shoes. 

192.  Grady,  Mrs.  John. 

Identified  by  receipts  found  on  her  per- 
son. Body  delivered  to  her  husband 
and  taken  to  Morrellville,  Pa. 

193.  Unknown. 

Male.  Age  two  years.  Blue  calico 
dress,  new,  with  white  vine  stripes. 
Black  and  white  plain  skirts.  Black 
stockings.     Buttoned  shoes. 

194.  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  ten  years.  Blue  cam- 
bric dress.  Woolen  skirt.  Woolen 
stockings.  Buttoned  shoes.  Dar'k 
hair. 


about    nine    months. 
Found  and  coffined 


RECORD    OF  MORGUE    "^." 


27:] 


This  closes  tlie  lecoids  of  the  Nineveh  Sta- 
tion Morgue.  All  of  the  above  except  two  are 
buried  at  Hilhern  Cemetery  on  a  hill  near  town. 
These  two  are  Nos.  i6l  and  192.  The  former  is 
Iniried  at  Norristown,  Pa.,  and  the  latter  at 
Morrellville,  Pa.  The  same  number  is  given 
at  the  graves  as  in  the  records  at  Greensl)urg, 
Pa.,  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Westmoreland 
County  Commissioners. 

Mr.  Hammer  and  Mr.  Samuel  M'Claren  are 
the  only  exceptions  to  the  aliove.  They  are  put 
down  as  blank  between  Nos.  28  (2)  and  28  (3). 
They  were  buried  at  New  Florence. 

The  following  were  found  at  or  near  Old 
Nineveh,  Indiana  county,  Pa.,  and  are  in- 
cluded in  MORGUE  "H"  and  numbered 
accordingly. 

The  first  tvi^enty-six  were  sent  to  Cambria 
City,  Morrellville,  Johnstown  and  elsewhere,  for 
which  see  records.  The  other  twenty-six  were 
buried  at  Old  Nineveh  Graveyard  or  Riverside 
Cemetery,  and  are  numbered  from  I  to  26 
inclusive.  No.  i  commences  at  221,  and  No.  2O 
closes  at  246. 

195.  Eims,  Mrs. 

196.  Lambreski,  Mrs. 

197.  Stinely,  Mrs.,  and  her  babe,  two  or  three 

months  old,  sent  to  Cambria  City. 

198.  Lentz,  Mary. 

Sent  to  Cambria  City,  Pa. 

199.  Constable,  Mrs. 

Sent  to  Cambria  City. 

200.  King.  Laura. 

Passenger  on  the  day  express.  Given  to 
R.  B.  Bates,  Racine,  Mich.  Two  breast- 
pins. One  set  diamond  ear-drops.  Two 
gold  finger  rings  with  sets.  Gold  watch 
and  chain.     ^75  in  money. 

201.  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  about  thirty. 

202.  Hirsley,  Harry. 

Age  ten  or  eleven.  Taken  to  Cambria 
City. 

203.  Hirsley,  Edward. 

Age  six  or  seven.  Sent  to  Cambria 
City. 

204.  Stinely,  Mrs. 

Buried  at  Johnstown. 

205.  Unknown. 

Female.  Very  large.  Light  com- 
plexion. 


206. 
207. 
208. 
209. 


214. 

215- 
216. 
217. 
218. 
219. 

220. 
221. 


Martsen,  Mrs.  Joseph. 
Catholic  medal.     Sent  to  Cambria  City. 

Niche,  Mary. 

Friends  received  valuables. 
Louther,  Mrs. 

Hungarian. 
Unknown. 

Female.     Weight      about      200.      Red 

hair. 
Unknown. 

Boy.     Age   six    or   seven    years.      Fair 

complexion. 

Atkinson,  John. 

Age   about  sixty-five.     Freight  filler  or 

car  coaler.     Buried  in  Union  Cemetery, 

East  Conemaugh. 
Riley,  Katie. 

Age   eight  or   nine.     Fair   complexion. 

Long  hair.     Sent  to  New  Florence. 
Clark,  Mrs.  Owen. 

Sent  to  Cambria  City. 
Keelan,  Mrs. 

Sent  to  Cambria  City. 
Grififin,  Miss  Mary. 

Sent  to  Morrellville. 
James,  Lena. 

Sent  to  Morrellville. 
Shittenhelm,  Tony. 

Age  about  ten  years. 
Kintz,  Mrs.  John. 

Sent  to  Cambria  City. 

Craig,  Mrs.  Catherine  L. 

Sent  to  Cambria  City. 
Weir,  Frank. 

(1)  Unknown. 

Female.     Age    about   twenty.     Weight 
120.     Light  complexion  and  light  hair. 

(2)  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  eight.     Light  hair. 

(3)  Unknown. 
Female.     Age     about     sixty-five, 
face.     Hair  sprinkled  with  gray. 


Full 


224. 


225. 


(4)  Unknown. 

Male.       Age     thirty-five.     Wore      long 
stockings  marked  H.  S.  T. 

(5)  Unknown. 

Female.     Age  eight.     Light  hair.    Blue 
eyes. 


274 


RECORD    OF  MORGUE    "H: 


226.  (6)  Fitzpatrick,  Emm:     Buried  in  Morrell- 

ville. 

227.  (7)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  sixty- five.  Dark 
hair.     Weight  about  140. 

228.  (8)  Sweitzer,  Mr. 

Age  seventy.  Left  leg  ofif  three  inches 
below  the  knee.  Grand  Army  Badge. 
Conemaugh  Borough,  Pa. 

229.  (9)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty.  Black  hair. 
Black  eyes.  Height  5  feet  6  inches. 
Heavy  band  ring  lettered  inside  from  H. 
VV.  S.  to  A.  M.  L.,  January  i,  1881. 

230.  (10)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty  to  forty.  Height  5 
feet  9  inches.  Weight  250  to  300. 
Dark  hair.  Natural  dent  above  right  eye 
half  an  inch  deep,  like  as  if  broken. 
Large  lips.     Short  nose. 

231.  (11)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty-five  to  forty. 
Weight  175.  Light  brown  hair.  Gray 
eyes.  Short  nose.  Round  face.  Rub- 
ber hair  pins.  Wort  near  ear.  Gold 
ring,  small. 

232.  (12)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  sixteen.  Height  5  feet. 
Weight  90  to  100.  Light  brown  hair. 
Short  nose.     High  forehead. 

233.  (13)   Unknown. 

Boy  baby.  Age  two  months.  Brown 
hair.     Blue  eyes. 


^34- 


Hester,  Mrs. 
Cambria  City. 


235.  (14)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-one  to  twenty-five. 
Height  5  feel  6  inches.  Long  brown 
curly  hair.  Very  heavy.  Round  face. 
Short  nose.  Chemise  with  red  border. 
Ears  were  pierced.  Shoes  number  5  or 
6.     Blue  calico  dress. 

236.  (15)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  sixteen  to  eighteen. 
Height  5  feet.  Light  brown  hair  with 
gray  appearance.  Blue  calico  dress. 
Red  flannel  underskirt.  Slim  waist. 
Number  4  shoes.  High  broad  forehead. 
Short  nose.  Ear-drop  in  left  ear  round 
eold  ball.     Catholic. 


237-   (16)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  forty  to  forty-five. 
Height  5  feet  10  inches.  Weight  160. 
Black  hair  mixed  with  gray.  Supposed 
to  be  nursing.  Dark  eye-brows.  Turned 
up  nose. 

238.  (17)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  two  to  three  years.  Height 
3  feet.  Black  hair.  Very  short  nose. 
High  and  round  forehead.  Broad  and 
full  face.     Banged  hair. 

239.  (18)   Unknown. 

Male.  Bunch  of  keys.  On  tab  was  "  J. 
Kestler,  603  B.  F.  (Blast  Furnace), 
Johnstown,  Cambria  county,  Fa."  Weight 
160  to  175.  Bald  on  top  of  head.  Red 
hair,  cut  short. 

240.  (19)  Unknown. 

Female.  Charred  in  Pershing's  field  in 
a  burnt  drift  pile  beyond  recognition. 
Breast  plate  with  name  of  Mrs.  W.  H. 
Wilson,  Monongahela  City.  Plain  white 
underskirt. 

241.  (20)    A    young   woman;    near    her    were 

found  sixty-eight  cents  in  silver.  Small 
plated  ring.  Mr.  Clark,  of  Armagh,  Pa., 
an  undertaker,  has  the  ring. 

242.  (21)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  fifty  to  fifty-five.  Gray 
hair.  A  few  gray  hairs  on  chin.  Bald 
on  top  of  head.  Height  5  feet  4  inches. 
Red  flannel  underskirt  striped  up  and 
down.     Left  lower  jaw  deformed. 

243.  (22)   Unknown. 

Female.  Age  twenty-five  to  thirty. 
Hair  brown  and  light.  Height  5  feet  6 
inches.  Weight  160  to  175.  Gingham 
apron.  Body  in  advanced  stage  of  de- 
composition. 

244.  (23)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  about  ten  years.  Black 
and  swollen. 

245.  (24)  Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eighteen  to  twenty-five. 
Weight  100  to  120.  Brown  aulunn 
hair.  Height  5  feet  6  inches. 
Coat  with  large  tin  buttons.  Corsets. 
White  canton  flannel  dra«'ers.  Red 
short  basque  with  red  buttons  on  it. 
Black  stockings.  Full  face.  Buttoned 
cloth  shoes,  with  patent  leather  tips. 


RECORD   OF  MORGUE   ''Hr 


275 


246.  (25)    Unknown. 

Female.  Age  thirty  to  thirty-five. 
Height  5  feet  8  inches.  Weight  150. 
Very  black  hair.     Low  round  forehead. 

247.  (26)   Unknown. 

Male.  Age  twenty-one  to  twenty-five. 
Height  5  feet.  Weight  125.  Black  hair. 
Blue  shirt  with  large  bars  on  it.  Mustache 
black.     Round  face.     Brown  overalls. 


24S.   (27)    Unknown. 

Female.  Age  eighteen  to  twenty. 
Height  5  feet  6  inches.  Weight  115  to 
120.  Red  barred  flannel  underskirt. 
Blue  flannel  underskirt.  Blue  calico 
apron  wiih  small  round  spot.  Corsets. 
Leather  belt  with  nickel  buckle.  No. 
3^  to  4  buttoned  shoes.  White  cotton 
stockings.  Low  forehead.  Gray  eyes. 
Dark  brown  hair.     Canton  flannel  draw- 


2. IN    THE    CEMETERIES. 

"  But  we  have  more  dead  in  our  hearts  to-day 
Than  the  earth  in  all  her  graves." — RiCHARD  Henry  Stoddard. 

The  word  cemetery  is  a  Christian  gift  to  sinning  and  dying 
humanity.  It  means  a  place  of  sleeping.  It  was  not  dreamed  of 
in  heathen  philosophy.  The  grave  was  invested  only  with  gloom, 
until  the  Son  of  Righteousness  arose  with  healing  in  His  beams. 
He  said,  "lam  come  a  light  into  the  world,"  and  in  His  radiance 
His  disciples  saw  that  the  tomb  was  the  sleeping-place  from  which 
they  who  sleep  in  Jesus  shall  awake  to  life  and  light.  Therefore 
they  called  their  burial  places  cemeteries.  Previous  to  the  Chris- 
tian era  they  were  called  "places  of  the  dead;"  they  gave  no  inti- 
mation of  a  resurrection,  a  waking  up  in  a  better  morn — a  never- 
ending  day.  The  inscription  on  the  early  Christian  tombs,  before 
the  corruptions  of  Christianity  began  In  the  Western  Church,  was 
"  requiescit  in  pace,"  he  rests  in  peace  ;  not  "  requiescat,"  may  he 
rest.  Christianity  has  hallowed  the  grave  while^divesting  it  of  the 
superstitions  with  which  it  was  surrounded. 

We  sought  resting  places  for  our  dead — not  merely  for  sanitary 
reasons  and  for  decency's  sake,  but  out  of  our  Christian  consider- 
ation, both  for  the  spirits  of  the  departed  and  the  living.  Hundreds 
were  unrecognized,  and  hence  laid  in  graves  unmarked  save  by  a 
number.  We  could  give  them  a  Christian  burial,  though  not 
knowing  who  they  were.  We  trusted  that  many  of  them,  at  least, 
were  resting  In  hope  of  awaking  in  that  world  on  whose  shores 


276 


IDENTIFYING   THEIR  DEAD. 


Storms  never  arise  and  tempests  never  beat,  and  where  the  sun- 
shine of  the  Lord  makes  perpetual  calm  amid  the  everlasting  hills. 
Great  numbers  of  bodies  that  had  been  hastily  buried,  were  re- 
interred  in  the  cemeteries.  Many  touching  scenes  occurred  during 
this  work.  The  recognition  of  the  bodies  by  friends,  parents,  hus- 
bands, wives  and  children  produced  impressions  that  will  never 
fade  from  the  memory  of  those  who  were  in  charge  of  the  work. 

The  following  Item  from  the  daily  press  describes  a  scene  as 
late  as  November  20th  : 

The  people  watching  the  exhuming  of  the  dead,  in  expectation 
of  finding  missing  friends,  are  used  to  the  distressing  sights  which 
daily  pass  before  them.  But  many  were  deeply  touched  last  week 
when  Mrs.  Fenn  identified  her  little  daughter,  Genevieve.  The 
child's  body  had  been  buried  at  Nineveh  just  as  found — with  the 
little  articles  of  clothing  showing  a  mother's  care,  the  tiny  rings 
upon  the  fingers,  and  in  the  pocket  a  set  of  metal  jack-stones  with 
which  she  had  been  playing  but  a  moment  before  the  waters  came 
and  swept  away  father  and  seven  children,  leaving  only  the  un- 
happy mother  to  pass  her  life  in  mourning.  Mrs.  Fenn's  joy  was 
great  over  finding  the  body,  and  all  present  rejoiced  with  her  that 
the  cruel  flood  had  given  up  another  of  her  dead. 

On  November  29th  this  report  was  published,  which  shows 
how  laro^e  a  number  of  unrecognized  dead  there  were  : 

Mr.  James  M.  Shumaker's  force  of  men  engaged  in  lifting 
and  re-interring  unknown  dead  finished  their  work  yesterday. 
The  figures  are  brief,  but  they  speak  volumes : 

Grand  View. — Raised,  135  ;  known,  11  ;  unknown,  122  ;  iden- 
tified, 2. 

Prospect. — Raised,  362;  known,  38;  unknown,  308;  identified,  16. 

Morrellville. — Raised,  40;  known,  3;  unknown,  35;  identified,  2. 


RE-INTERRING   THE  DEAD. 


277 


Geinnan  Cemetery,  Moi^rellville. — Raised,  15;  known,  3;  un- 
known, 12. 

Decker  s. — Raised,  49  ;  known,  5  ;  unknown,  43  ;  identified,  i. 

Beiiskoff's. — Raised,  22;  known,  5  ;  unknown,  17. 

Nineveh. — Raised,  182;  known,  9 ;  unknown,  i  62  ;  identified,  1 1 , 

Old  Nineveh. — Raised,  24;  known,  i;  unknown,  22;  identified,  i, 

Blairsville. — Raised,  1 1  ;  known,  i  ;  unknown,  9;   identified,  i, 

Saiidyvale. — Raised,  4  ;  unknown,  4. 

Tlie  totals  are :  Raised,  844 ;  known,  76 ;  unknown,  734 ; 
identified,  34. 

The  work  of  raising  the  bodies  at  Nineveh  of  those  who  per- 
ished in  the  floods  was  completed  Tuesday.  The  last  car-load  of 
those  buried  on  the  Nineveh  side  arrived  here  last  night,  and  Wed- 
nesday they  were  hauled  in  wagons  to  Grand  View. 

The  bodies  buried  on  the  Indiana  side  were  lifted  Tuesday. 
There  were  twenty-five  of  them.  All  but  one  were  buried  just 
across  the  river  from  Nineveh  Station  in  a  cernetery  close  to  the 
bank  of  the  stream.  The  one  exception  was  a  body  that  was 
interred  in  Hice's  graveyard,  about  two  miles  below  Nineveh. 
These  bodies  were  all  taken  to  Nineveh  and  placed  in  a  box-car 
for  shipment  to  Johnstown. 

There  was  one  identification.  It  was  the  body  of  Miss  Maggie 
Dougherty,  who  was  recognized  by  her  sister  Rosie,  of  Cambria. 

Wednesday  the  bodies  interred  at  Blairsville — thirteen  in 
number — were  begun  to  be  raised.  One  of  these,  that  of  Mrs. 
Julia  McLaughlin,  is  buried  in  the  Catholic  cemetery  there  and 
will  not  be  disturbed.  Another,  that  of  Mrs.  P.  Carr,  of  Cam- 
bria, will  be  brought  here  for  interment. 

The  removal  of  the  bodies  from  Blairsville  will  complete 
the  work  under  Mr.  Shumaker  and  his  force.  The  few  remaining 
in  other  cemeteries  will  be  exhumed  by  undertakers  at  those  points 
and  forwarded  here  for  interment,  in  most  instances. 


IV. 

THE  WORLD'S  SYMPATHY. 


I. SHOWN  BY  LETTERS,  TELEGRAMS,   CHECKS. 

I  felt  the  world  weighed  down  with  heavy  care. 

And  heard  sad  cries  in  darkness  everywhere  ; 

And  heard  them  as  I  would  be  heard  in  prayer. 

With  large,  sweet  pity,  taking  instant  share 

Of  the  great  burden  of  the  laboring  earth,  , 

Holding  one  lifted  heart  of  greater  worth 

Than  scores  of  hopes  and  selfish  birth. — Zadel  Barnes  Gustafson. 

The  seamless  robe  of  the  Son  of  Man,  woven  throughout,  typi- 
cally signified  the  unity  of  humanity.  As  the  Son  of  God,  he  had 
clothed  Himself  with  humanity  as  a  vesture.  All  the  threads  of 
the  common  life,  which  all  men  derived  from  God,  and  which  had 
been  unraveled  and  broken  by  sin,  He  gathered  and  wove  together 
in  Himself.  On  that  nigrht  in  which  He  finished  His  work  of  res- 
toration,  there  were  assembled  men  of  different  races  ;  and  upon 
His  cross,  over  His  crucified  and  pierced  body,  they  read  the  in- 
scription in  the  three  languages  of  the  earth:  "This  is  Jesus  of 
Nazareth." 

Amid  that  scene  of  tragic  suffering,  amid  nature's  portents, 
the  brutal  soldiers  were  seen  casting  lots  for  that  seamless  robe. 
It  could  not  be  parted  without  injury.  True  type  of  our  humanity, 
He  had  worn  it  around  His  sacred  body  ;  and  it  remains  the  sa- 
cred symbol  of  the  oneness  of  mankind,  which  scenes  of  suffering 
and  of  death  will  ever  display. 

(278) 


DR.   BEALE'S  TWO  BOYS  AND  THEIR   RESCUED   DOG. 


^^  VMF^  THY  AND  HELP.  28  I 

The  human  suffering  at  Johnstown  touched  the  heart  of 
humanity  and  demonstrated  in  noble  strains  that  "  the  whole  world 
is  kin.''  From  every  civilized  quarter  of  the  globe  the  springs  of 
sympathy  were  opened,  and  streams  of  supply  and  relief  promptly 
flowed  into  our  stricken  valley.  Telegrams  and  letters  of  sym- 
pathy and  proffers  of  aid  poured  in  from  every  direction.  Hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  telegraphic  dispatches  and  thousands 
and  thousands  of  letters  were  received  within  a  few  days, 
expressive  of  this  sympathy.  Postmaster  Baumer,  to  whom> 
with  Mr.  Ogle,  too  much  credit  cannot  be  given  for  extemporiz- 
ing a  postoffice  on  the  outskirts  of  the  flooded  districts,  were  hardly 
able  with  all  their  force  to  handle  the  immense  mail  matter 
which  was  daily  received  ;  for  sometimes  my  own  letters  averaged 
almost  a  hundred  a  day.  It  will  be  both  interesting  and  instruct- 
ive to  put  on  permanent  record  abstracts  from  a  few  of  them. 

From  North  Adams,  Mass.,  the  Rev.  Jno.  S.  Coyle  writes  me  : 
''  Your  telegram  reached  me  just  as  I  was  about  to  enter  my  pul- 
pit. I  made  it  the  text  for  a  plea  for  money,  and  I  presume,  as  a 
consequence,  several  hundred  dollars  have  already  gone  to  John 
D.  Roberts,  whom  you  name  as  a  proper  person  to  receive  it.  I 
want  to  say  that  you  are  all  in  our  hearts  and  prayers,  as  you  are 
in  the  hearts  and  prayers  of  the  whole  world." 

The  Finance  Committee  were  addressed  thus  from  Salt  Lake 
City :  "  The  shock  of  your  terrible  calamity  was  felt  in  Salt  Lake 
City,  nearly  3,000  miles  away,  as  though  in  sight.  Reading  the 
accounts  of  the  appalling  disaster,  our  eyes  were  suffused  with  tears. 
But  mourning  cannot  raise  up  one  life  or  heal  one  broken  limb- 
We  send  money,  therefore.  A  spectacle  was  witnessed  a  few 
evenings  after  your  catastrophe,  the  like  of  which  has  never  been 
seen  since  the  city  was  built.  Ten  thousand  people  gathered  in 
that  wonderful  building,  the  Tabernacle,  to  listen  to  a  concert,  the 
proceeds  of  which  are  to  be  sent  to  Johnstown." 


282  FROM  CHINA   TO  ITALY. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Hunter  Corbett,  of  Chefoo,  China,  writes  to  me, 
under  date  of  July  19th:  "  I  cannot  tell  you  how  our  hearts  have 
been  filled  with  sadness  as  we  have  read  of  the  terrible  calamities 
which  have  come  upon  your  people.  You  all  are  constantly  in 
our  thoughts  and  prayers.  Only  God  can  comfort  and  sustain 
those  who  have  lost  those  dearer  than  life.  May  God's  richest 
blessings  be  upon  every  sad  and  bleeding  heart!  If  we  did  not 
have  full  faith  in  the  wisdom,  the  goodness  and  mercy  of  God, 
surely  at  such  times  we  should  be  utterly  cast  down  and  be  tempted 
to  give  up  in  despair.  I  am  so  glad  to  learn  from  the  papers  that 
your  life  has  been  spared.  In  a  private  letter  it  was  reported  that 
you  were  among  the  missing.  I  trust  and  pray  that  God  still  has 
many  years  of  active  service  in  store  for  you.  You  and  your  sur- 
viving people  will  be  able  to  sympathize  more  deeply  with  poor 
China  in  the  terrible  calamities  which  fall  so  heavily  and  so  often 
upon  this  people.  Thousands,  probably  millions,  were  swept  out 
of  existence  when  the  Yellow  River  left  its  source,  and  vast  dis- 
tricts of  fertile  land,  thickly  inhabited,  turned  into  lakes  and  desert 
land.     Pray  much  for  this  people." 

A  distinguished  American  clergyman  writes  to  me  from  Italy, 
under  date  of  June  7th,  as  follows:  "While  traveling  on  the  Con- 
tinent I  have  read  of  the  horrors  at  Johnstown.  From  a  paper 
seen  last  evening  I  notice  that  God  in  his  mercy  has  spared  you. 
My  heart  bleeds  for  those  who  have  perished,  and  for  those  who 
are  left  to  mourn.  I  trust  that  your  dear  ones  have  escaped.  I 
wish  I  was  in  a  position  to  aid  you.  I  have  an  American  dollar 
here,  which  I  inclose.  Use  it  as  you  may  see  best;  and  may  God 
in  His  goodness  raise  up  friends  for  all  you  who  are  spared,  and 
overrule  this  calamity  for  His  glory  !  " 

Among  the  letters  received  by  me  from  other  lands,  no  one  is 
more  highly  prized  than  the  following  from  a  city  in  Queensland, 
Australia,    which    contained    substantial    aid    to    the    amount    of 


FROM  AUSTRALIA.  283 

^273  Sterling:  "On  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Brisbane,  we  send 
you  the  inclosed  draft  as  a  small  expression  of  our  sympathy  with 
the  suffering  survivors  of  the  great  flood  which  recently  laid  waste 
your  fair  valley.  In  the  truest  and  deepest  sense  we  feel  the 
relationship  which  must  ever  exist  between  the  people  of  the 
United  States  and  British  colonists  in  Australia,  speaking  as  we 
do  the  same  language,  and  united,  as  we  are,  in  race  fellowship. 
We  would,  therefore,  send  this  small  donation  to  the  sufferers  in 
the  Conemaugh  Valley,  with  assurance  of  a  sympathy  that  cannot 
be  expressed  in  a  material  way.  We  will  be  well  pleased  if  this 
small  gift  is  accepted  as  from  brethren  here  to  the  suffering  ones 
of  the  one  great  family  in  another  land,  and  also  as  a  token,  in 
some  small  measure,  ofour  anxiety  to  assist  in  bearing  the  burdens 
of  suffering  humanity.  We  request  that  you  make  such  use  of  it 
as  you  may  deem  most  expedient  to  make  it  reach  the  end  in- 
tended— viz.,  the  actual  relief  of  some  who  have  suffered  through 
the  great  calamity.  If  you  will,  in  due  time,  kindly  send  us  a 
report  of  its  distribution  for  publication  here,  we  think  it  will  do 
much  to  stimulate  the  spirit  of  generosity  throughout  our  land, 
and  be  a  means  of  bringing  nearer  the  time  we  all  hope  for,  when 
all  the  world  will  be  united  in  the  sympathetic  Brotherhood  of 
Humanity.  We  remain.  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir, 
"  Respectfully  yours, 

"W.  M.  Galloway,  Mayor  of  Brisbane. 

"G.  D.  Buchanan,  Minister  of  Scots'  Church,  Brisbane. 

"Jas.  Chapman,  Hoti.  Treasurer, 

"  R.  Lee  Bryce,  //on.  Secretary!' 

During  the  time  I  remained  in  charge  of  the  morgues,  I  re- 
ceived over  3,000  letters  and  over  loo  telegrams  expressive  ot 
sympathy,  and  tendering  help,  a  few  of  which  are  here  given  : 

On  June  2d  a  cablegram  reached  me  regarding  the  person 
mentioned  in  the  following  letter  and  her  husband,  both  of  whom 


284  ^^^-  ^^-  AG  NEWS  LETTER. 

were  drowned.  The  letter  that  follows  was  written  by  Mrs.  Bain, 
of  Ayr,  Scotland,  June  5th,  1889:  "  It  is  with  a  sore  heart  sym- 
pathizing with  the  unfortunate  inhabitants  that  I  write  and  ask  if 
you  can  give  me  any  information  regarding  my  dear  sister,  Mrs. 
Craig,  one  of  your  church  members.  I  saw  from  yesterday's 
paper  you  were  among  the  saved,  and  thought  that  with  you  might 
be  my  sister.  Words  cannot  describe  how  anxious  my  dear 
mother  and  all  of  us  are  about  her  safety." 

Rev.  B.  F.  Agnew,  D.D.,  of  Philadelphia,  wrote  the  following 
on  June  8th:  "  My  heart  aches  for  you  all,  and  I  want  to  be  with 
you,  but  I  have  just  recovered  from  a  severe  attack  of  bronchitis, 
and  I  have  not  felt  able  to  camp  out  in  the  cold  nights  at  Johns- 
town, or  I  would  have  been  with  you  before  this.  I  have  stayed  at 
home  and  worked  for  you,  and  my  church  have  given  ^1,600 
in  money,  and  on  Sabbath  we  forwarded  the  first  car  load  of  blank- 
ets and  clothing  from  our  people;  and  the  32d  Ward  Committee 
have  sent  from  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  my  church  over 
fifty  large  wagon  loads  of  supplies  to  my  dear  old  friends. 

"Now,  what  else  can  I  do  for  you  all?  My  ladies  will  ship  a 
box  of  sheets,  under-clothing,  etc.,  to  your  address  next  Wednes- 
day, and  they  want  you  to  open  it  and  take  from  it  anything  your 
own  family  may  need.  Can  you  find  time  to  write  a  few  lines  and 
tell  me  how  the  old  church  stands,  and  who  are  left  of  dear  old 
friends?  Can  I  be  of  any  use  if  I  go  out  there  in  a  few  days? 
The  God  of  all  comfort,  who  comforteth  us  in  all  our  tribulation, 
comfort,  sustain  and  strengthen  you." 

With  a  generous  inclosure,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jno.  B.  Grier,  under 
date  of  June  7th,  sent  the  following  words  of  cheer:  "My  Dear 
Friend  Beale  : — We  are  thankful  to  God  here  that  you  and  yours  are 
safe,  and  that  your  church  seems  to  be  standing.  I  put  in  an 
appeal  for  the  people  in  this  week's  Presbyterian,  and  inclose  you 
the  first  fruits.     It  is  committed  to  you  with  the  idea  that  some  of 


WORDS  OF  CHEER.  285 

your  flock  may  need  special  help,  and  to  enable  you  to  give  aid  to 
necessitous  people,  who  may  not  otherwise  receive  relief.  If  you 
cannot  use  wisely  among"  the  Presbyterians,  help  all  names  and 
sects  with  it.  We  give  you  wide  discretion  in  the  use  of  anything 
we  may  transmit." 

Rev.  Wm.  S.  Lacy,  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church,  ad- 
dressed the  following  letter  to  Rev.  Dr.  Allison:  "Our  people  have 
had  their  sympathies  deeply  enlisted  in  behalf  of  the  Johnstown 
sufferers,  and  have  given  of  their  means  generously,  through  the 
Citizens'  Committee  of  Relief.  The  children  of  our  Sabbath- 
school  wished  to  add  their  mite,  and  wished  it  given  to  the  needy 
of  the  Sunday-school  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Johnstown. 
I  have  thus  far  failed  to  ascertain  who  is  the  pastor  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  Johnstown.  But  I  see  you  are  the  Treasurer  of 
the  Board  for  Freedmen  and  the  Committee  on  Temperance,  and 
I  know  that  Johnstown  is  a  suburb  in  some  sense  of  Pittsburgh. 
I,  therefore,  send  to  you  and  ask  your  kindness  in  appropriating  it  as 
desired." 

Alfred  Thomas,  Esq.,  a  prominent  citizen  of  Columbus,  Ohio, 
addressed  me  thus :  "  You  have  been  much  in  my  thoughts  since 
learning  of  the  dire  calamity  which  has  befallen  your  city.  What 
scenes  of  suffering  and  desolation  you  must  have  witnessed!  Our 
people  at  once  commenced  sending  in  donations  of  money,  cloth- 
ing, etc.,  through  Mr.  Deshler  and  our  Board  of  Trade.  Ohio,  I 
am  glad  to  know,  was  most  prompt  and  efficient,  through  the  good 
Governor  and  citizens,  in  sending  aid  to  your  surviving  sufferers. 
Hold  fast  to  God  and  His  word.  Let  not  your  faith  be  shaken. 
'  When  thou  passeth  through  the  waters,  I  will  be  with  thee.'  " 

The  Rev.  S.  M.  Hamilton,  of  New  York,  has  sent  me  the  fol- 
lowing communication,  inclosing  $25:  "Last  summer  an  Irish 
gentleman  died  in  this  city.  Shortly  before  his  death  he  had  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  send  some  money  to  the  relief  of  Johnstown. 


286  HELP  FR OM  CHILDREN. 

He  was  unable  to  carry  out  his  wishes  ;  but  I  have  just  received 
the  inclosed  money  from  his  family,  asking  me  to  send  it  to  you, 
that  you  may  use  it  in  any  way  that  seems  right  to  you.  The 
gentleman,  in  whose  memory  it  is  sent,  was  a  man  of  large  heart, 
but  not  of  large  means." 

Gifts  ranging  from  twenty-five  cents  up  to  hundreds  of  dollars 
were  received  by  myself  and  other  individuals,  and  by  the  Finance 
Committee.  One  gift  of  twenty-five  cents  was  inclosed  in  a  letter 
to  me  written  by  a  lady  in  Savannah,  Georgia.  Among  letters 
received  from  children  was  the  following  from  three  little  girls  of 
Light  St.  Presbyterian  Church,  Baltimore  :  "  Desiring  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  relief  of  yourself  and  other  victims  of  the  late  terrible 
fiood,  we  conceived  the  idea  of  giving  an  entertainment  for  that 
purpose.  We  immediately  set  to  work  to  accomplish  our  object, 
and  in  one  week  made  all  necessary  arrangements,  and  the  enter- 
tainment was  held  on  June  13th,  in  Triumph  Hall,  before  an  audi- 
ence of  over  300  people.  Naturally,  we  felt  a  deeper  interest  in 
you,  and  decided  that  the  money  should  be  sent  direct  to  you  for 
your  special  benefit,  but  to  be  used  in  any  way  you  might  deter- 
mine upon.  The  programme  was  carried  out,  with  one  or  two 
exceptions,  by  little  girls  between  the  ages  of  6  and  15  years. 
God  has  crowned  our  efforts  with  success  far  beyond  what  we 
expected,  and  we  are  glad  to  be  able  to  send,  through  Mayor 
Latrobe,  ^93.41.  Mr.  T.  L.  McCully  furnished  twenty-three  gal- 
lons of  ice-cream,  of  which  he  donated  ten  gallons.  The  hall  was 
donated  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Parks,  who  is  the  agent,  and  a  large  num- 
ber of  cakes  were  given  by  many  of  your  friends  of  South  Balti- 
more.    Hoping  this  money  may  do  some  good,  we  are, 

"Yours  truly, 

"  Bessie  McCully, 
"  Florence  Haynard, 
"  Cora  Orem." 


THE  RED  CROSS.  287 

2. SHOWN    BY  CHURCHES,   SECRET  SOCIETIES  AND  THE  RED  CROSS. 

THE  RED  CROSS  SOCIETY. 

The  work  of  the  Red  Cross  Society,  under  the  personal  direc- 
tion of  Miss  Clara  Barton,  has  been  extensively  published  in  the 
daily  press  and  magazines,  so  that  it  is  generally  known  and  ap- 
preciated. Miss  Barton,  with  a  corps  of  assistants,  appeared  on 
the  scene  at  Johnstown  five  days  after  the  flood.  As  the  founder 
and  leader  of  the  Red  Cross  Society,  which  had  done  noble  and 
humane  work  in  wars  at  home  and  abroad,  and  in  calamities  in 
other  cities,  she  was  gladly  welcomed,  and  every  facility  was 
afforded  her  by  the  national  and  State  authorities.  She  became 
prominent  in  the  location  and  management  of  hospitals,  through 
which  the  work  of  the  Society  was  very  largely  done.  Dr.  Robert 
S-  Wharton,  the  resident  physician  of  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of 
the  Red  Cross,  was  put  in  charge  of  the  medical  work.  The  effi- 
ciency of  the  work  was  greatly  due  to  his  experience  and  skill. 

While  some  aspects  of  the  operations  of  this  Society  have 
been  quite  freely  criticised  by  the  citizens  of  Johnstown,  it  did  a 
great  deal  of  good,  which  has  been  freely  acknowledged  by  them  in 
suitable  testimonials. 

Perhaps  if  the  Society  had  confined  its  assistance  to  the 
sick,  the  wounded  and  crippled  by  the  flood, — the  classes  for 
whom  it  was  organized, — there  would  and  could  have  been  no 
occasion  of  complaint  or  criticism  ;  but,  when  it  undertook  the 
distribution  of  provisions  and  clothing,  it  at  once  assumed  the 
risks  with  which  such  benevolence  is  always  attended, — of  being 
imposed  upon,  and  of  helping  the  lazy  and  shiftless  to  the  neglect 
of  the  worthy  and  needy.  This  is  precisely  what  happened. 
Complaints  came  to  us  from  reliable  sources  that  impostors,  many 
of  whom  had  arrived  after  the  flood,  were  being  furnished  over 
and  over  again  by  this  Society,  while  our  own  people,  who  were 


288  DIFFICULTIES  OF  THEIR    WORK. 

penniless  and  homeless,  and  yet  too  noble  to  beg,  received 
nothing-.  Their  cases — some  of  widows — were  represented  to  the 
Society,  but,  because  they  did  not  appear  in  person,  they  were 
"  neglected  in  the  distribution."  Whenever  strangers,  even  with 
benevolent  purpose,  attempt  to  do  this  work,  they  are  liable  to 
make  mistakes  from  their  inability  to  distinguish  between  residents 
and  non-residents.  Here  was  the  great  error  in  all  departments 
of  the  work  of  relief:  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  committed  to 
non-residents,  some  of  whom  had  never  before  been  in  Cone- 
maugh  Valley.  The  people  of  Johnstown  and  the  other  boroughs 
were,  therefore,  put  in  the  attitude  of  beneficiaries  or  beggars, 
which  the  majority  felt  keenly.  Out  of  this  condition  arose  much 
of  the  disaffection  which  was  felt,  though  not  loudly  expressed, 
towards  the  distributing  work  of  the  Red  Cross  Society.  As  late 
as  October  7th  the  regular  correspondent  of  the  New  York  World 
thus  writes  from  Johnstown:  "They  (the  citizens)  are  beginning 
to  elbow  out  the  outsiders  who  came  here  for  revenue  only,  and  to 
demand  that  the  city  shall  be  allowed  to  rely  upon  its  own  re- 
sources. They  frown  upon  the  Red  Cross  Society,  and  declare 
that  it  introduced  pauperism'by  giving  out  provisions  and  clothing 
to  the  more  shiftless  class,  who  will  not  do  work  of  which  they  are 
capable  as  long  as  they  can  eat  the  bread  of  charity." 

That  the  services  of  Miss  Barton,  Dr.  Wharton  and  the  corps 
of  the  Society  were  appreciated  is  evident  from  the  receptions  and 
testimonials  which  were  given  them  before  their  departure. 

The  Cambria  County  Medical  Society  passed  the  following 
resolution : 

Resolved,  That  the  representatives  of  the  Cambria  County 
Medical  Society,  residing  in  the  Conemaugh  Valley,  hereby  tender 
to  Miss  Clara  Barton,  President  of  the  American  Red  Cross,  their 
sincere  and  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  sweet  spirit  of  charity  and  lov- 
ing kindness  which  has  prompted  and  controlled  her  actions  with 


MISS  BARTON' S  GENEROSITY.  201 

the  stricken  people  of  our  community,  and  for  the  gracious  man- 
ner in  which  she  has  aided  us  on  many  occasions. 

The  most  valuable  result  of  Miss  Barton's  work  and  mis- 
sion is  the  Union  Benevolent  Association,  with  a  Ladies'  Branch. 
To  this  Miss  Barton  conveyed  all  the  hospital  property  and  req- 
uisites remaining-  in  her  possession.  At  a  meeting  of  the  two, 
the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  were  adopted  by  the 
Association : 

Whereas,  Miss  Clara  Barton  has  kindly  tendered  to  the 
Union  Benevolent  Association  the  Infirmary  on  Locust  Street, 
which  she  has  fully  and  completely  fitted  up  for  the  reception  of 
patients  and  convalescents  ;   now,  therefore. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Association  be  tendered  to 
Miss  Barton  for  this  additional  proof  of  her  thoughtful  and  tender 
regard  for  the  suffering  people  of  Johnstown. 

Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  Association  be  authorized 
to  consult  with  the  President  of  the  Ladies'  Branch  and  arrange 
for  the  management  by  the  Ladies'  Branch  of  the  Infirmary  and 
property  connected  therewith. 

And  by  the  Ladies'  Branch  : 

Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  Ladies'  Branch  be  author- 
ized to  consult  with  the  President  of  the  Association,  and  to  ap- 
point a  committee  of  lady  managers  and  members  to  take  charge 
of  the  Infirmary  which  has  been  so  kindly  turned  over  to  the  Asso- 
ciation by  Miss  Clara  Barton. 

Resolved,  That  the  Ladies'  Branch  extend  to  Miss  Clara  Bar- 
ton their  thanks  for  the  opportunity  which  she  gives  them  of  enter- 
ing at  once  upon  the  work  of  caring  for  the  sick  and  infirm,  and 
that  we  will  carry  on  the  good  work  which  Miss  Barton  has  been 
performing  for  this  community  to  the  best  of  our  ability. 

i6 


2  Q  2  ^  N-^  ^V  ARM  OF  HELP. 

THE  UNION  BENEVOLENT  ASSOCIATION. 

The  Presidents  of  the  Union  Benevolent  Association  and  the 
Ladies'  Branch  have  given  for  pubHcation  a  statement  of  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Association  and  its  workings.  Copies  of  the  constitu- 
tion, which  have  just  been  printed,  can  be  obtained  from  the  officers. 
Mr,  James  King  is  Secretary,  and  Mr.  W.  C.  Lewis,  Treasurer. 
The  constitution  fixes  the  annual  membership  fee  at  ^2  and  a  life 
membership  at  $10.  The  following  statement  is  self-explaining: 

Johnstown,  Pa.,  November  30,  1889. 

To  the  Public : — The  President  of  the  Union  Benevolent  As- 
sociation of  the  Conemaugh  Valley  and  the  President  of  the  Ladies' 
Branch  have  been  authorized  to  make  the  following  statement  for 
publication  : 

The  Association  is  a  charitable  organization  for  the  relief  of 
the  destitute.  It  is  intended  to  be  a  permanent  organization,  and 
it  is  not  in  ?.ny  way  limited  in  its  charities.  It  is  not  organ- 
ized merely  for  the  relief  of  flood  sufferers,  or  to  make  good 
their  losses  by  the  flood.  Such  stores  and  funds  as  it  can  control 
will  be  used  to  prevent  suffering  among  the  destitute  and  worthy 
poor,  and  none  others  need  apply  for  relief.  The  District  Com- 
mittees of  the  Ladies'  Branch  are  charged  with  the  duty  of  ascer- 
taining the  condition  of  the  people  within  their  districts  and 
sections,  so  that  if  any  persons  are  suffering  for  food,  fire,  cloth- 
ing, or  other  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  are  worthy  of  assist- 
ance^  their  distress  may  be  relieved.  In  no  case  is  it  intended  to 
give  anything  without  personal  investigation  by  the  District  Com- 
mittee or  District  Visitor,  and  no  attention  whatever  will  be  paid 
to  any  requisitions  or  recommendations  where  there  have  not  been 
such  personal  investigation  and  such  a  report  of  the  facts  as  will 
show  that  there  is  a  necessity  for  relief  Any  needy  person,  or 
any  person  having  knowledge  of  a  case  of  distress,  should  write 


SUPPLIES  abundant:  20" 

the  facts  to  the  Union  Benevolent  Association  of  Johnstown,  and 
the  communication  will  receive  attention  by  being  referred  to  the 
proper  committee  for  investigation  and  action.  It  is  useless  for 
the  people  to  make  personal  application  by  besieging  the  mem- 
bers of  the  committees  in  their  houses  or  going  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  Association.  Whenever  any  application  for  relief  is  granted, 
prompt  notice  will  be  given  to  the  parties  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Association.  The  Association  has  but  a  small  stock  of  supplies, 
and  but  a  small  amount  of  funds  at  its  disposal,  but  it  is  now,  and 
will  be  hereafter,  able  to  relieve  all  cases  of  actual  distress,  and  all 
such  cases  should  be  promptly  made  known  to  its  officers.  The 
visitors  will  also  make  known  to  the  Committee  in  charge  of  the 
Infirmary  any  cases  of  infiirm  persons  who  cannot  be  made  com- 
fortable in  their  homes,  and  in  such  cases,  when  investigated  and 
found  to  be  of  proper  character,  the  Committee  in  charge  of  the 
Infirmary  have  authority  to  grant  an  order  of  admission.  Persons 
able  to  make  payment,  or  partial  payment  as  inmates  of  the  In- 
hrmary,  will  be  expected  to  do  so. 

We  wish  to  say  again,  and  say  it  emphatically,  that  the  Asso- 
ciation has  the  means  of  relieving  any  case  of  distress  among  our 
people.  It  is  organized  for  this  purpose,  and  it  is  unnecessary  for 
any  poor  person  in  Johnstown  to  beg,  and  it  is  unnecessary  for 
anybody  elsewhere  to  beg  for  Johnstown.  If  there  is  anywhere, 
in  the  hands  of  committees,  funds  or  stores  contributed  for  Johns- 
town, and  belonging  to  Johnstown,  the  Association  would  be  pleased 
to  receive  them,  and  will  endeavor  to  make  good  use  of  them. 

Helen  Moxham. 
Cyrus  Elder. 

3, — services  rendered  by  the  press. 

It  is  difficult  to  express,  in  adequate  terms,  the  value  of  the 
services   rendered  by  the  press.     Among  the   first  to  come  into 


294 


SYMPATHY  OF  THE  PRESS. 


our  deluged  and  devastated  city  and  valley  were  the  ubiquitous 
reporters.  They  came  primarily  for  news,  and  the  immediate  publi- 
cation of  the  situation  was  necessary  to  our  relief.  But  these  gentle- 
men, who  came  to  see  and  report,  were  moved  by  the  scenes  they 
beheld  to  sympathy  and  help.  They  freely  bestowed  money  with 
which  they  had  been  supplied  for  personal  expenses,  and  engaged 
in  the  work  of  rescue  and  repair,  while  they  kept  their  pens  busy 
in  portraying  the  facts  to  the  world. 

The  information  they  spread  through  the  press — in  the  main 
truthful — awakened  the  sympathy  of  mankind,  brought  speedy 
relief  from  our  own  countrymen,  and,  soon  afterward,  from  other 
countries. 

They  sent  the  pulsations  of  their  own  hearts  back  to  the 
editorial  office,  and  made  the  great  heart  of  the  cosmopolitan 
press  swell  with  sympathy  and  leap  to  the  work  of  mercy. 

The  thought  and  compassion  of  the  civilized  world  were  daily 
directed  to  and  centered  upon  Conemaugh  Valley  and  Johnstown. 
Proprietors,  editors,  reporters,  printers  and  pressmen  combined 
in  the  merciful  work  of  relief.  The  newspaper  offices  in  city  and 
country  were  converted  into  subscription  and  collection  agencies ; 
and  with  the  dispatch  characteristic  of  the  press,  from  these  were 
received  the  speediest  and  most  constant  supplies  of  money  and 
material.  They  came  as  if  borne  by  the  fabled  Mercury,  whose 
winged  feet  seemed  scarce  to  touch  the  earth  in  his  speed. 

It  would  be  gratifying  and  interesting  to  give  all  the  items  of 
aid  rendered  by  the  press,  but  I  have  only  those  that  passed  either 
through  my  hands  or  within  my  observation. 

One  of  the  most  signal  examples  was  that  of  the  New  York 
Mail  and  Expj^ess,  of  which  Colonel  Elliot  F.  Shepard  is  proprietor 
and  editor.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  communicate  with  me,  not 
only  with  promises  of  large  sums,  as  soon  as  they  could  be  raised, 
but  with  immediate  help  in  money,  bedding,  provisions  and  other 


A  NOBLE   LETTER.  295 

things  needed  at  once  by  the  suffering-  survivors.  These  gifts  and 
promises  were  accompanied  with  manifestations  of  sympathy  and 
Christian  concern  for  our  people  that  gave  to  them  additional 
value.  The  following  letter,  dated  June  ist,  the  day  after  the 
flood,  illustrates  this : 

Mail  a?id  Express, 

New  York,  June  ist,  1889. 
Rev.  Dr.  David  y.  Beale,  yohnstown,  Pa. 

Dear  Sir  : — Your  heroic  exertions  in  the  calamities  that 
have  befallen  your  regions  have  been  observed  with  keenest 
interest  by  many  of  your  fellow-citizens.  It  is  now  both  my  duty 
and  pleasure  to  forward  you  a  contribution  which  has  been  made 
toward  a  fund  for  helping  you  to  restore  your  church  edifice  by 
die  Knox  Presbyterian  Church  of  this  city,  of  which  Rev.  Dr. 
David  G.  Wylie  is  pastor. 

We  also  inclose  you  a  check  for  five  hundred  dollars,  to  be 
applied  by  you  as  you  may  think  best,  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers 
by  the  flood,  or  in  the  work  of  restoration  or  help  in  such  form  as 
you  may  elect. 

We  also  beg  to  notify  you  that  we  have  received  a  fund  spe- 
cially to  aid  and  to  be  divided  among  the  oldest  male  and  female 
survivors  of  the  calamity — a  fund  contributed  by  the  Baptist 
Church  of  Mount  Vernon,  Westchester  County,  New  York,  and 
to  ask  you  to  select  and  name  to  us,  five  aged  persons  fulfilling 
this  description,  that  we  may  remit  to  them  the  respective  sums  of 
one  hundred  dollars  each. 

We  shall  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you  in  regard  to  any  fea- 
tures of  the  great  calamity  and  its  mitigation. 

May  God  bless  our  beloved  country. 

Yours  most  truly, 

Elliot  F.  Shepard. 


296  BRA  VE  HEL  PERS. 

Colonel  Shepard  had  telegraphed  a  contribution  of  ten 
thousand  dollars  immediately  after  the  news  of  the  disaster  was 
received  in  New  York.  Mr.  W.  A.  Deering  ably  represented  the 
Mail  and  Express,  and  rendered  us  valuable  service  in  many 
ways,  besides  writing  truthful  accounts  of  our  calamity. 

The  reporters  of  the  Pittsburgh  papers  were,  of  course,  the 
first  upon  the  ground,  having  been  sent  on  Friday  evening,  May 
31st,  three  hours  after  the  flood,  on  a  chartered  train.  They  could 
not  get  farther  that  night  than  Bolivar.  On  the  next  morning 
they  entered  Johnstown  and  began  at  once  their  arduous  work. 
They  made  use  of  the  rudest  accommodations  and  extemporized 
shelters  among  the  ruins.  They  were  soon  afterward  joined  by 
their  brethren  from  other  cities.  East  and  West.  Not  only  were 
their  services,  as  telegraphers  and  correspondents,  valuable,  as 
already  intimated,  but  their  presence  was  a  comfort  to  us.  We 
knew  that  they  were  a  body  of  brave,  intelligent  men,  upon  whom 
we  could  rely  in  all  emergencies,  and  for  any  assistance  which  we 
might  be  compelled  to  ask  of  them;  besides  this,  their  cheerfulness, 
good  humor  and  encouraging  words  aided  greatly  in  the  recovery 
of  our  depressed  spirits  and  mustering  of  our  courage  to  carry  on 
the  work  of  reconstruction.  Many  of  these  gentlemen  made  them- 
selves known  to  me,  and  offered  their  services  in  many  ways  that 
were  consistent  with  their  duty  to  their  journals.  It  is  not  easy,  in- 
deed, it  is  not  possible,  to  describe  the  influence  upon  our  spirits  ot 
these  intelligent,  bright,  cheerful  men  in  the  circumstances  in  which 
we  were  placed.  But  they  often  added  to  these  words  of  encour- 
agement, deeds  of  kindness  and  acts  of  self-sacrifice.  I  wish  that  all 
their  names  were  known  to  me,  that  I  might  record  them.  I  gladly 
name  A.  E.  Watrous,  H.  S.  Brown,  F.  J.  Crute,  of  the  Philadelphia 
Press ;  Wilson,  of  the  Times;  J.  Hampton  Moore,  of  the  Ledger; 
Curley,  of  the  Record ;  W.  A.  Deering,  of  the  Mail  and  Express  ; 
and  Herbert  Smythe,  of  the  Associated  Press  of  Chicago. 


JOURNALISTIC  ENTERPRISE.  20  7 

Some  of  the  journals  established  bureaus  of  relief  in  Johns- 
town where  money  iand  provisions  were  distributed.  Mr.  J.  F. 
Graham,  an  editor  of  the  New  York  World,  established  one 
where,  up  to  July  ist,  1889,  $9,688.00  were  distributed  to  deserving 
sufferers 

The  most  hazardous  and  difficult  trip  to  Johnstown  was  that 
taken  by  Henry  S.  Brown,  of  the  Philadelphia  Pj^ess.  He  was  sit- 
ting at  his  desk  at  1 1  o'clock,  Friday  night,  when  he  was  ordered 
to  the  scene,  and,  without  making  any  preparation  for  the  journey, 
took  the  11.20  train  from  the  Broad  Street  Station.  At  Harris- 
burg  all  railroad  communication  with  the  West  was  interrupted. 
The  Pennsylvania  officials  said  it  could  not  be  restored  for  several 
days — in  fact,  it  was  not  restored  for  two  weeks.  After  studying 
the  maps,  the  Press  correspondent  decided  to  drive  to  Johnstown, 
a  proposition  that  was  scouted  by  many  people,  who  knew  that  all 
the  country  intervening  had  been  ravaged  by  the  flood.  The  Cum- 
berland Valley  Railroad  took  him  to  Chambersburg — a  hundred 
miles  from  Johnstown  as  the  crow  flies,  and  much  more  than  that 
by  the  country  roads.  Hiring  a  double  team,  he  pushed  across  the 
Cumberland  Valley  and  over  the  Tuscarora  Mountains  to  McCon- 
nellsburg.  Another  team  was  in  waiting,  and  he  pushed  onward. 
The  roads  were  washed  out,  bridges  were  gone,  and  mountain 
streams  were  still  swollen  to  roaring;  torrents.  The  horses  had  to 
be  unhitched,  and  the  wagon  drawn  across  Licking  Creek.  On 
the  side  of  Sidling  Hill  Mountain,  the  merest  chance  stopped  the 
team  on  the  brink  of  a  yawning  precipice.  The  wagon  could  only 
get  within  a  few  miles  of  Juniata  Crossing,  and  the  bed  of  the  turn- 
pike was,  for  a  mile,  a  rushing  stream,  which  the  correspondent 
had  to  wade.  On  the  other  side  of  the  Juniata  he  was  met  by 
another  team  that  had  been  telegraphed  for,  and  he  drove  through 
Everett  and  Bedford,  and  thence  across  the  Alleghenies  to  Stoys- 
town.     Here  another  relay  of  horses  was   procured,  and  he  got 


2g8  THE  JOHNSTOWN  PRESS. 

into  Johnstown  on  Monday,  having  made  the  terrible  journey  of 
over  one  hundred  miles  in  less  than  twenty-eight  hours,  by  travel- 
ing day  and  night,  without  halting  for  food  or  rest.  One  of  the 
first  faces  he  saw  that  he  knew  was  that  of  F.  Jennings  Crute, 
also  of  the  Press  staff.  Mr.  Crute  had  been  told  to  get  there  by 
rail,  and  he  beat  Mr.  Brown  by  an  hour.  To  accomplish  this  he 
made  a  trip  of  nearly  800  miles,  journeying  by  way  of  New  York, 
Buffalo  and  Pittsburgh.  They  were  joined  the  next  day  by  Mr. 
A.  E.  Watrous,  the  city  editor  of  the  Press,  and  their  reports  at- 
tracted widespread  attention.  The  other  Philadelphia  journalists 
who  took  the  same  route  as  Mr.  Brown,  were  John  J.  Curley,  of 
the  Record,  H.  P.  Wilson,  of  the  Times,  and  Peter  Bolger  and 
Arthur  W.  Morrow,  of  the  Ledger.  Mr.  Curley  had  no  sooner 
entered  the  town  than  he  narrowly  escaped  death  by  falling 
through  the  trestle-work  at  the  fatal  bridge,  and  was  seriously  in- 
jured, but  this  did  not  prevent  him  from  continuing  his  work.  Mr. 
Brown  stuck  to  his  post  after  all  the  other  Philadelphians  had  been 
recalled,  and  until  he  was  stricken  down  with  illness. 

THE  JOHNSTOWN  PRESS. 

In  giving  this  willing  and  grateful  testimony  to  the  outside 
press,  we  should  not  forget  the  local  journals,  The  yohnstown 
Iribune,  Democrat  and  Freic  Presse.  Undaunted  by  the  destruc- 
tion and  their  losses,  the  proprietors  and  editors  evinced  a  fortitude 
and  enterprise  that  could  not  be  surpassed  by  the  metropolitan 
press.  It  was  truly  marvelous  how  speedily  they  mastered  the 
difficulties  of  the  situation — how  they  secured  the  means  and  the 
labor  necessary  to  the  collection  of  news  and  items  and  the  daily 
issue  of  their  papers.  They  greatly  facilitated  the  work  of  all  who 
had  charge  of  the  difficult  task  of  recovery  and  reconstruction. 
In  their  labors  they  were  truly  heroic,  for  those  labors  were  her- 
culean indeed. 


JAMES   l;.  scon     CHAIKMAX    PITTS1!URGH   CU.M.MITTEK  ok    RELIEE. 


BOUNTEOUS  GIFTS. 


\o\ 


4. ^THE    FUND    DISTRIBUTION. 

Ere  the  roar  of  the  angry  flood  had  subsided  in  Conemaugh 
Valley,  the  wires  flashed  the  tale  of  horror  to  every  city  in 
Christendom,  A  dam  that  served  no  useful  purpose  had  given 
way,  and  a  city  of  thirty  thousand  people  was  inundated.  Their 
business-houses  and  homes  were  destroyed,  thousands  perished, 
and  the  rest  were  left  destitute  and  dismayed.  The  sympathy  of 
the  world  was  aroused,  and  quickly  manifested  itself  in  most  sub- 
stantial ways.  Food  and  clothing  came  from  near  and  afar  to 
supply  the  immediate  and  most  pressing  wants  of  the  suffering 
survivors.  Trains  were  dispatched  from  Pittsburgh  and  Baltimore 
at  once,  and  subsequently  from  other  cities,  with  provisions  and 
clothing,  to  which  the  people  at  way-stations  contributed.  Thus 
was  the  desire  shown  to  administer  without  delay  to  the  Cone- 
maugh Valley  suflerers. 

For  a  few  days  after  the  flood  there  was  no  systematic  distri- 
bution, consequently  some  avaricious  persons  obtained  more  than 
their  proper  portion.  A  number  of  farmers  who  lived  miles  away 
successfully  demanded  a  share  of  the  supply,  on  the  plea  that 
they  had  refugees  in  their  homes.  In  some  cases,  they  were  charg- 
ing board  for  these  victims  of  the  flood. 

The  sympathy  of  the  world  began  to  express  itself  in  raising 
and  sending  money.  Individuals,  associations,  societies,  States, 
cities  and  towns,  generously  contributed.  The  civilized  world  with 
open  hands  poured  out  money,  to  what  extent  has  never  been, 
and  perhaps  can  never  be,  accurately  stated.  Relief  committees 
were  appointed  in  cities  and  large  towns.  The  Pittsburgh  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  acted  as  the  financial  agent,  to  whom  a  large 
portion  of  the  contributions  was  sent.  A  local  committee  of  finance 
was  appointed  in  Johnstown  by  the  provisional  government 
formed  immediately  after  the  flood.    The  first  relief  the  people  had 


202  ^-^^^  STATE  FLOOD  COMMISSION. 

was  from  the  fund  in  its  possession.  It  was  a  per-capita  distri- 
bution of  ten  dollars.  The  committee  also  paid  all  the  expenses 
of  eovernment  and  the  work  of  reconstruction  durinof  the  ex- 
istence  of  the  local  administration. 

The  committees  in  the  various  parts  of  the  country  and  pri- 
vate contributors  naturally  communicated  with  or  sent  drafts  to 
the  Governor  of  the  State.  For  a  lono-  time  no  definite  information 
was  received  concerning  the  local  authority,  and  the  uncertainties 
of  communication  with  it  suo-orested  this  course.  Governor  Beaver 
then  decided  to  appoint  a  commission,  of  which  he  was  chief,  to 
be  called  The  State  Flood  Commission.  This  was  to  have  the 
control  and  distribution  of  the  funds,  and  the  desire  was  officially 
expressed  that  all  contributions  of  money  should  pass  through  its 
hands. 

This  arrangement  was  received  favorably  by  the  people  and 
country  at  large,  as  it  seemed  to  provide  for  a  speedy  as  well  as 
proper  distribution.  When,  however,  the  Committee  was  an- 
nounced, and  not  one  of  the  residents  of  Johnstown  or  the  Cone- 
maugh  Valley  was  upon  it,  surprise  aiid  disappointment  and 
some  indignation  were  expressed.  The  Governor,  however,  had 
offered  a  position  on  the  Committee  to  four  different  residents, 
whose  circumstances  or  other  reasons  prevented  their  acceptance — 
viz.,  John  Fulton,  James  McMillen  and  John  P.  Linton.  William 
Horace  Rose  also  was  appointed,  but  he  had  been  severely 
injured  by  the  flood,  and,  being  absent  from  home,  was  not  aware 
of  his  appointment.    His  son  telegraphed  the  facts  to  the  Governor. 

Notwithstanding  this,  the  citizens  contended  that  there  were 
many  other  men  of  like  character  and  standing  in  Johnstown  and 
vicinity,  and  that  the  Committee  should  not  have  been  constituted 
without  some  of  them  upon  it.  They  claimed  this  as  their  right  of 
representation  in  matters  affecting  themselves  in  their  calamity ; 
that  it  was  necessary  to  have  those  on  the  Committee  who  were 


CAUSES  OF  DISAFFECTION.  ^03 

bound  to  them  by  their  domestic  and  civil  ties,  and  had  endured 
with  them  the  perils  and  results  of  the  flood.  They  also  con- 
tended that  a  proper  distribution  of  moneys  depended  largely 
upon  personal  knowledge  of  the  people  and  community,  by  the 
Committee,  The  Commission  was  constituted  with  twelve  mem- 
bers from  different  portions  of  the  State — viz.,  James  A.  Beaver, 
Chairman;  J.  C.  Bomberger,  Treasurer;  J.  B.  Kremer,  Secre- 
tary; Edwin  H.  Fitler.  Thomas  Dolan,  John  Y.  Huber,  Robert 
C.  Ogden,  Francis  B.  Reeves,  James  B.  Scott,  Reuben  Miller, 
S.  S.  Marvin  and  H.  H.  Cummin.  This  was  the  first  occasion  of 
the  disaffection  which  subsequently  became  so  outspoken.  The 
next  was  when  the  Commission  appropriated  a  quarter  of  a 
million  of  dollars  to  indemnify  losses  in  lumber  and  other  material 
property  east  of  the  Alleghenies,  where  there  had  been  little  or 
no  loss  of  life  or  ruin  of  cities.  The  inhabitants  of  Conemaugh 
Valley  said  that  the  world's  sympathy  had  been  aroused  not  by 
the  destruction  of  property,  not  by  individual  losses  of  lumber, 
rafts  and  mills  ;  its  great  heart  had  been  wrung  by  the  cries  of 
their  drowning  women  and  children,  their  fathers  and  husbands  ; 
by  the  destruction  of  their  homes,  and  the  wailings  of  the  orphan. 
It  poured  out  from  its  wealth  and  its  poverty  alike;  it  made  the  most 
willing  sacrifices  to  send  immediate  help  to  the  stricken,  sorrow- 
ing, despairing  victims  of  the  Conemaugh  flood.  They  declared 
that  they  would  not  have  been  the  special  subjects  of  the  world's 
sympathy  had  it  not  been  for  this  human  aspect  of  the  flood 
and  the  human  sufferings  from  it.  They  had  been  previously  sub- 
jected to  inundation  in  which  there  were  property  losses  similar  to 
those  east  of  the  mountains,  but  they  had  not  awakened  any  wide- 
spread sympathy  or  aid. 

Delay  in  the  distribution  was  another  occasion  of  complaint. 
The  suffering  people,  who  were  anxious  to  begin  life  again,  could 
not  understand  why  money  which  had  been  so  quickly  and  gener- 


304  INCREASING  DISCONTENT. 

ously  given  for  this  purpose  should  remain  idle  in  die  bank,  and 
apparendy  be  benefidng  only  clerical  employees  from  other 
sections  not  affected  by  the  disaster.  The  people  clamored  for 
the  distribution,  and  the  Local  Finance  Committee,  whose  standing 
the  Governor  and  State  Commission  recognized,  concurred  with 
the  people  by  an  official  request  for  it.  In  response,  ten  dollars 
per  capita  were  paid  to  those  who  had  passed  through  the  flood 
with  loss.  This  gave  temporary  relief,  because  in  most  instances 
it  was  paid  to  heads  of  families  in  aggregate  sums.  Dissatisfac- 
tion again  arose  from  the  requirement  of  an  oath  from  the  citizens 
on  their  "  form  of  return  "  of  their  losses.  The  registration  by 
the  Board  of  Inquiry  required  every  person  to  make  a  return 
upon  a  blank  furnished  of  his  or  her  loss  in  real  or  personal 
estate.  The  Board  of  Inquiry  was  composed  of  citizens  of  un- 
doubted character  and  standing,  well  acquainted  with  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  district.  For  weeks  they  labored  in  going  over  the 
registration  returns,  and  where  they  found  the  losses  exaggerated 
they  reduced  them  to  what  they  believed  was  a  just  and  true 
amount,  calling  in,  from  time  to  time,  to  aid  them  in  ascertaining  the 
facts,  neighbors  and  acquaintances  of  the  excessive  claimants.  Here 
the  matter  should  have  rested,  but  the  Commission  was  not  satis- 
fied with  the  registration  and  the  work  of  the  Board  of  Inquiry, 
and  one  of  their  number  devised  a  form  of  return  to  be  sworn  to 
as  the  basis  upon  which  the  distribution  should  be  made.  The 
return  thus  devised  was  regarded  as  inquisitorial  and  objection- 
able, and  excited  the  condemnation  of  the  conscientious  portion  of 
the  community,  who  loudly  protested  not  only  at  the  delay  in  the 
distribution  of  the  money,  but  at  the  inquisitorial  shape  of  the 
questions  addressed  to  the  claimant  by  the  Commission's  form  of 
return.  An  indignation  meeting  was  called,  and  held  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  at  which  representative  persons  from  all  sec- 
tions of  the  valley  took  part,  and   the  action  of  the   Commission 


THE  INDIGNATION  MEETING. 


305 


and  the  inquisitorial  form  of  the  return  were  denounced  in  reso- 
lutions. The  indignation  meeting  brought  its  fruit.  The  repre- 
sentative of  the  Commission  having  charge  of  the  returns  took 
occasion  to  explain  that  the  blank  did  not  mean  what  was  stated 
on  its  face,  and  some  of  the  requirements  were  waived  when  many 
of  the  returns  were  subsequently  handed  in.  The  meeting  was 
recognized  as,  in  fact  it  really  was,  the  first  authoritative  or  repre- 
sentative meeting  and  declaration  of  the  will  and  wants  of  the 
leading  people  of  the  district,  every  ward,  township,  borough, 
village  or  hamlet  having  had  two  or  more  of  its  best-known  rep- 
resentative citizens  participating  in  the  meeting.  The  press  of 
the  State  recognized  the  fact  and  called  the  Commission  to  proceed 
according  to  the  wish  of  the  stricken  people,  and  hand  over  to 
them  the  fund  that  had  been  so  lavishly  poured  out  for  their  relief. 
The  Board  of  Inquiry  announced  that  they  had  ascertained 
the  losses  ;  that  they  were  now  delayed  by  the  new  form  of  the  re- 
turn required ;  and  that  they  found  as  the  new  returns  came  in  the 
amounts  differed  largely  in  many  cases  from  the  losses  as  they 
had  adjusted  them.  The  query  now  arose.  What  should  control — 
the  patient  labor  and  inquiry  of  the  Board,  or  the  oath,  in  many 
instances,  of  an  unscrupulous  claimant?  To  what  extent  persons 
stretched  their  consciences  in  swelling  the  value  of  their  goods 
lost  or  destroyed  will  remain  unknown  ;  suffice  it  to  say  the  Board 
of  Inquiry  found  instances  in  which  there  was  partial  damage  to 
property  where  the  amount  claimed  as  damages  exceeded  all  the 
claimant  was  worth  before  the  flood.  In  other  cases,  where  the 
party  had  been  dodging  creditors,  claiming  that  his  property  was 
so  small  that  the  three  hundred  dollar  exemption  would  screen 
him  from  his  just  debts,  his  sworn  return  showed  that  his  losses 
ranged  from  two  to  three  thousand  dollars.  Cases  like  this  the 
Board  of  Inquiry  could  and  would  have  reached  ;  the  return  re- 
quired  by    the    Commission    prevented    them    from    interfering. 


3o6  BASIS  OF  distribution: 

because  it  was  backed  by  the  oath  of  the  claimant.  It  is  true  that, 
in  some  few  instances,  the  sworn  return  was  for  a  less  amount 
than  the  original  schedule  filed  with  the  Board  of  Inquiry  called 
for,  but  in  the  instances,  for  the  most  part,  the  difference  was 
owing  to  the  fact  that  portions  of  their  goods  had  been  found  and 
restored  between  the  dates  of  the  two  returns. 

A  scheme  of  division  into  classes  was  devised  by  which  those 
made  widows  by  the  flood  and  having  children  were  of  the  first  class ; 
and  those  made  widows  and  having  no  children  were  of  the  second 
class:  the  aged,  decrepit  and  injured  were  the  third  class;  those 
who  had  lost  all  their  property,  and  not  of  the  first  or  second  class, 
were  of  the  fourth  class  ;  those  who  had  sustained  considerable 
loss  were  of  the  fifth  class ;  and  young  persons  able  to  take  care 
of  themselves,  and  persons  who  had  much  left,  were  of  the  sixth 
class.  The  Commission  eliminated  the  sixth  class  from  any  share 
in  the  distribution,  except  what  they  had  received  of  the  per 
capita  above  referred  to.  A  distribution  of  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  was  ordered,  p-ivine  to  members  of  the  first  class  six  hun- 
dred  dollars  each;  of  the  second  class,  four  hundred  dollars  each; 
of  the  third  class,  two  hundred  dollars  each;  of  the  fourth  class, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  each;  and  of  the  fifth  class, 
eighty  dollars  each.  This  distribution  was  hailed  with  delight, 
and  did  more  to  encourage  the  people  and  stimulate  them  to 
action  than  anything  that  had  heretofore  been  done. 

The  Board  of  Inquiry  was  ready  before  the  Commission  for 
the  final  distribution.  After  having  formulated  their  schedule,  they 
were  twice  compelled  to  go  over  their  entire  work,  by  reason  of 
the  Commission  having  twice  changed  their  scheme  of  distribution 
to  the  persons  who  had  lost  large  amounts  of  property. 

A  period  of  six  months  elapsed  before  the  final  distribution 
was  made.  In  it,  members  of  the  first  and  second  class  were  paid, 
in  accordance  with  their  age  and  number  of  dependent  children. 


TOTAL   OF  DISTRIBUTION.  307 

from  eighty  to  one  thousand  dollars.  To  the  remaining-  classes, 
whose  losses  were  in  property,  a  percentage  was  allowed ;  those 
whose  losses  did  not  exceed  five  hundred  dollars  were  allowed 
from  fifty  to  eighty  per  cent,  of  their  loss  ;  those  above  five  hun- 
dred dollars  and  under  one  thousand  dollars,  a  sum  according  to 
the  equity  of  their  case,  not  to  exceed  six  hundred  dollars  to  any 
one  person  ;  those  over  one  and  under  two  thousand  dollars  were 
paid  according  to  their  circumstances,  not  to  exceed  eight  hun- 
dred dollars  to  each  individual.  The  fourth  class  was  distributed  to 
according  to  the  equities  of  their  cases,  but  no  individual  to  receive 
more  than  six  thousand  dollars  ;  to  members  of  the  fifth  class  a 
distribution  was  made  according  to  the  equities  of  the  case,  no 
one  receiving  more  than  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  The 
total  amount  of  money  disbursed  in  all  the  payments  was  in  round 
numbers  two  million  two  hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand  dollars. 

No  statement  has  been  furnished  of  the  amount  of  money 
expended  for  commissary  stores  and  other  supplies,  and  until  the 
Commission  furnishes  a  detailed  statement  it  will  not  be  known 
what  the  sum  last  referred  to  is. 

The  local  Finance  Committee  have  never  given  to  the  public 
any  statement  of  the  amount  that  came  into  their  hands,  but  it  is 
believed  that  the  sum  aggregates  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  ;  and  that  it  will  be  honestly  distributed  or  appropriated  to 
some  public  purpose  is  not  to  be  doubted. 

While  it  may  be  asserted  that  mistakes  were  made  and  ex- 
penses incurred  that  might  have  been  avoided,  no  imputation  has 
been,  or  can  be,  cast  upon  the  honor  of  the  Governor  or  any  mem- 
ber of  the  Commission. 

The  following  are  the  resolutions  adopted  at  the  meeting  of 
the  citizens.  They,  with  the  foregoing,  and  the  official  statements 
of  Mr.  J.  B.  Kremer,  Secretary  of  the  State  Flood  Commission, 
are  given  as  a  part  of  the  history,  without  comment  by  the  author, 
in  justice  to  all  parties  : 


3o8  RESOLUTIONS  OF  THE  CITIZENS. 

Resolved,  That  the  citizens  of  Johnstown  and  vicinity  respect- 
fully yet  earnestly  request  that  the  fund  contributed  for  the  relief 
of  the  sufferers  by  the  disastrous  flood  which  devastated  the  Cone- 
maugh  Valley  be  as  speedily  as  possible  distributed  in  money 
directly  to  the  people  for  whose  benefit  it  was  donated,  and  that 
all  purchases,  contracts  and  expenses  to  be  paid  for  out  of  this 
fund  immediately  cease. 

Resolved,  That  any  hoarding  up  of  this  fund  to  meet  prob- 
lematical future  wants  will  materially  diminish  its  usefulness  and 
only  result  in  delaying  to  a  more  distant  time  the  restoration  of 
homes,  of  business,  of  industry,  and  of  confidence.  It  will  do 
more  good  in  the  hands  of  the  people  now  than  at  any  time  here- 
after. 

Resolved,  That  we  repudiate  as  insulting  to  the  manhood  and 
intelligence  of  our  citizens  (now  that  the  avenues  of  trade  are 
opened  up)  the  imputation  that  they  cannot  and  will  not  wisely 
and  economically  disburse  any  funds  placed  in  their  hands,  and, 
because  of  this  imputation,  the  arrogant  assumption  that  guardians 
must  supervise  our  expenditures,  control  our  disbursements,  pur- 
•  chase  our  supplies,  and  make  our  contracts. 

Resolved,  That  if  the  statement  imputed  to  His  Excellency, 
Governor  Beaver,  that  "a  million  and  a  half  dollars  has  already 
been  expended  in  Johnstown  and  vicinity"  has  any  foundation  in 
fact,  it  is  the  strongest  possible  argument  that  expending  relief 
funds  in  contracting  for  buildings,  quartermaster,  and  commissary 
supplies  is  not  a  wise,  judicious,  or  economical  way  of  disbursing 
such  funds  when  the  ordinary  sources  of  supply  are  opened  up. 
Only  by  gross  extravagance  and  carelessness  could  such  a  sum 
have  been  used  here,  and  the  people  have  received  no  adequate 
return  for  the  expenditure  of  so  large  an  amount. 

Resolved,  That  the  disbursement  of  the  fund  subscribed  for 
relief  directly  to  the  sufferers  by  the  flood  will  stimulate  business, 


RESOLUTIONS  OF  THE  CITIZENS. 


311 


will  provide  work  for  our  builders  and  trade  for  our  merchants, 
will  provide  labor  for  our  artisans,  and  will  tend  to  restore  confi- 
dence in  the  community,  and  will  thus  directly  and  indirectly  help 
those  for  whom  the  fund  was  intended,  while  any  other  course,  at 
this  day,  savors  of  jobs,  redounds  to  the  benefit  of  non-resident 
contractors  and  business  men  having  no  interest  in  this  commu- 
nity, and  unjustly  discriminates  against  our  own  citizens. 

Resolved,  That  it  is  unfair  and  unjust  to  exact  an  oath  as  to 
private  income  and  relief  before  the  bounteous  charity  of  our 
countrymen  can  be  distributed  to  its  beneficiaries. 

Resolved,  That  we  hereby  appeal  to  the  custodians  of  funds 
at  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Pittsburgh  and  other  localities  to  trans- 
mit the  funds  in  their  hands  intended  for  Conemaugh  Valley  suf- 
ferers direct  to  our  local  Finance  Committee  to  be  distributed  by 
that  Committee  immediately,  in  cash,  upon  requisitions  of  the 
Board  of  Inquiry  upon  such  fair  and  equitable  basis  as  may  be 
adopted,  and  we  invite  the  co-operation  of  such  custodians  in 
making  such  distribution. 

Resolved,  That  our  citizens  have  entire  confidence  in  the  good 
faith,  skill  and  judgment  of  the  Board  of  Inquiry  appointed  at  a 
citizens'  meeting  and  the  local  boards  which  they  called  to  their 
assistance,  and  this  meeting  cannot  look  with  favor  on  any  attempt 
of  strangers  to  supervise  their  work — perhaps  reverse  their  find- 
ings, and,  by  exacting  extra-judicial  oaths  and  inquisitorial  in- 
quiries as  to  income  and  other  relief,  reflect  on  the  proceedings  of 
the  Board,  and,  as  we  fear,  delay  for  an  indefinite  period  the  distri- 
bution of  that  portion  of  the  fund  graciously  allowed  for  present 
disbursement. 

Resolved,  That  this  meeting  express  its  profound  gratitude  to 

the  many  thousands  of  people  in  our  own  and  other  lands  who 

have  so  spontaneously  and  generously  contributed  to  the  relief  of 

our  people,  and  now  only  venture  on   this  expression   of  opinion 

17 


312  THE  FLOOD  COMMISSION' S  STATEMENT. 

because  those  here  assembled  believe  they  are  in  this  way  but 
expressing  the  sentiments  of  the  generous  donors  of  so  bounteous 
a  fund,  as  they  are  sure  they  express  those  of  the  intended  benefi- 
ciaries. 

Chal.  L.  Dick,  Esq.,  thought  the  resolutions  of  the  Committee 
were  not  strong  enough  ;  that  the  occasion  demanded  stronger 
language.  Rev.  Dr.  Beale  thought  the  resolutions  should  be 
adopted  as  read,  with  which  view  the  meeting  concurred,  and  the 
resolutions  were  adopted  as  read. 

Official  Statement  as   to   the   yohnstown  Fund  and  the    General 
Relief  Woi^k  Performed. 

Office  of  the  Flood  Relief  Commission, 

Harrisburg,  Pa.,  July  12th,  1889. 

Dear  Sir  : — At  a  regular  meeting  of  the  Flood  Relief  Com- 
mission, held  on  July  9th,  a  committee  of  three  members  was  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  for  the  information  of  contributors  to  the  fund 
a  statement  of  the  general  relief  work  performed.  The  committee 
makes  report  as  fellows  : 

In  round  figures  the  expenditures  to  date  for  relief  in  the 
Conemaugh  Valley,  Johnstown  and  vicinity,  aggregate  one  million 
seven  hundred  thousand  dollars.  This  includes  the  work  of  the 
Pittsburgh,  Johnstown  and  Philadelphia  committees  and  the  Flood 
Commission  ;  also  disbursements  of  the  State  in  the  abatement  of 
nuisances  and  payment  of  the  military  detailed  to  staff  and  police 
duty. 

Various  committees  in  the  West  have  been  working  through 
the  Pittsburgh  and  Johnstown  committees,  and  in  the  East  through 
the  Philadelphia  Committee  and  the  Governor  of  the  State.  The 
Flood  Commission  has  been  formed  to  create  a  unit  of  admin- 
istration.    In  that  Commission  of  which  the  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 


WORK  OF  THE  COMMISSION.  t  I  •^ 

vania  is  the  Chairman,  the  committees  of  Pittsburgh  and  Philadel- 
phia and  the  State  at  large  have  representation.  All  the  funds 
placed  under  the  control  of  the  Executive  have  been  transferred  to 
the  Commission,  and  an  implied  understanding  exists  that  the 
committees  of  Pittsburgh  and  Philadelphia  will  do  the  same.  It  is 
also  desirable  that  all  moneys  now  in  the  hands  of  other  commit- 
tees for  this  purpose  be  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  Commission. 

The  Commission  has  held  frequent  meetings  in  various  parts 
of  the  State.  All  its  members,  save  one  or  two,  prevented  by  un- 
controllable causes,  have  made  personal  investigation  of  the  several 
flooded  districts  of  the  State.  Relief  has  been  given  in  all  needful 
directions  with  the  greatest  dispatch  consistent  with  the  best  wis- 
dom that  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  case.  Correspond- 
ence and  conference  have  been  freely  invited  for  the  information 
of  the  committees  in  the  first  instance,  and  the  Governor  and  Com- 
mission subsequently. 

The  problem  confronting  the  Commission  in  the  Conemaugh 
Valley  is  of  great  magnitude,  demanding  the  utmost  celerity  and 
the  wisest  and  most  delicate  discrimination. 

The  number  of  persons  to  be  fed  have  varied  from  a  maximum 
of  31,950  to  a  present  commissary  roll  of  7,000. 

The  number  of  distinct  claims  to  be  passed  upon,  many  of 
them  involving  the  interests  of  families  or  dependent  relatives, 
aggregate  nearly  4,000. 

The  Commission  has  sought  to  find  the  will  of  the  donors  of 
the  orreat  sums  contributed  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers,  and  be- 
lieving  that  the  following  declaration  of  principles  met  the  condi- 
tions, it  was  adopted  and  promulgated  at  a  meeting  held  in  Har- 
risburg  on  June  27th: 

To  the  Public  : — That  the  donors  of  the  funds  in  the  hands  of 
the  Flood  Relief  Commission  may  know  how  their  generous  gifts 


3H 


RESIDENT  REPRESENTA  TIVE. 


are  to  be  disposed  of,  and  that  the  expectant  recipients  of  the  same 
may  not  form  erroneous  views  of  and  foster  improper  expectations 
for  the  same,  it  is  now  officially  declared  and  announced  that  the 
following  principles  shall  govern  the  distribution  of  relief: 

1.  That  the  said  fund  is  in  the  nature  of  a  charity  to  the  needy, 
and  not  as  a  general  indemnity  for  losses  sustained. 

2.  That  a  distribution  per  capita  would  be  manifestly  unjust, 
as  it  would  go  alike  to  the  rich  and  poor  and  alike  to  all  sufferers, 
no  matter  what  their  needs  or  extent  of  their  sufferingrs, 

3.  That  a  distribution  by  percentage  on  the  amount  of  losses 
would  be  manifestly  unjust,  as  it  would  result  in  giving  the  largest 
sum  to  the  person  having  lost  the  most,  without  regard  to  the 
value  of  the  remaining  estate  of  such  persons. 

4.  That  this  fund  cannot  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  any  private 
or  public  corporation. 

5.  That  the  fund  must  go  only  to  the  most  needy  sufferers 
from  the  flood  In  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  trust  imposed 
upon  it  by  the  donors. 

At  the  unanimous  request  of  the  Commission,  Hon.  Hugh 
H.  Cummin  was  requested  to  proceed  to  Johnstown  and  remain 
there  as  the  resident  representative  and  executive  officer  of  this 
Commission  In  the  Conemaugh  Valley. 

In  accordance  with  the  foregoing,  Judge  Cummin  has  fixed 
his  office  In  Johnstown  as  the  resident  executive  of  the  Commis- 
sion, and  is  working  energetically  In  harmony  with  the  local  Relief 
Committee  and  the  leading  citizens. 

Supplies  of  food,  shoes  and  clothing  will  continue  to  be 
given  to  the  needy  as  required.  It  is  hoped  to  shortly  discontinue 
this  form  of  relief.  Four  hundred  portable  houses  and  two  hun- 
dred to  be  built  on  the  spot  are  already  contracted  for.  They 
will  be  made  ready  for  use  rapidly,  as  the  local  committee  will 
indicate  the  places  for  them.      The  number  will  be  increased,  and 


PA  YMENTS  ELSE  WHERE. 


315 


the  rate  at  which  they  will  be  supplied  need  only  be  limited  by  the 
ability  to  find  ground  upon  which  to  put  them.  They  will  be  fur- 
nished for  occupancy  as  completed.  Relief  in  other  forms  is  also 
being-  o-iven. 

At  Cresson,  July  9th,  the  Commission  held  conferences  with 
committees  from  Chicago,  Williamsport  and  Johnstown. 

In  view  of  the  magnitude  of  the  relief  required  and  the 
immense  detail  involved  in  a  just  apportionment  of  the  funds  in 
hand  to  the  many  curiously  involved  cases,  the  Commission,  after 
hearing  very  fully  and  deliberately  Messrs.  McMillen,  Elder, 
Moxham  and  Johnson,  of  the  Johnstown  Committee,  resolved  to 
appropriate  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  to  be  distributed  among 
the  verified  claimants  in  the  Conemaugh  Valley,  through  its  repre- 
sentative in  Johnstown,  Hon.  H.  H.  Cummin,  as  soon  as  the 
checks  for  the  payments  can  be  prepared — the  sums  so  paid  to  be 
considered  as  payments  on  account  of  a  final  adjustment  to  be 
made  upon  a  carefully-devised  system  already  approved  by  the 
Commission.  The  details  are  left  to  the  judgment  of  Judge 
Cummin,  but  there  is  a  tacit  understanding  that  the  distribution  is 
to  be  upon  the  registration  and  classification  of  claims  already 
made  with  much  care  by  the  Johnstown  Committee.  This  cash 
will  average  considerably  above  $100  to  each  claimant,  and  is  in 
addition  to  cash  already  distributed  by  the  Johnstown  Committee. 
This,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  beside  the  general  relief  work  con- 
stantly going  forward. 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  the  total  relief  already  afforded 
the  Conemaugh  Valley  sufferers  is  in  round  figures  two  million 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  Commission  increased  the  sum  to  be  devoted  to  relief  in 
the  nineteen  other  counties  besides  Cambria  to  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  The  largest  single  sum  will  be  required  for 
the  Williamsport  district  of  Lycoming  County — this  in   addition 


3i6 


THE  TOTAL  RECEIPTS. 


to  various  relief  afforded  by  committees  before  the  creation  of  the 
Flood  Commission. 

The  sums  required  for  the  Johnstown  district  will  cover  all 
the  moneys  coming  into  the  State  from  outside  sources,  with  large 
amounts  in  addition.  The  appropriations  for  other  localities  are 
from  general  contributions  made  within  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  Commission  to  gather  and  collate  the 
accounts  of  all  the  work  done  everywhere  for  the  relief  of  the  flood 
sufferers,  and  place  the  same  in  a  complete  and  permanent  form 
for  public  use.  Very  respectfully, 

J.  B.  Kremer, 

Secretary. 

This  official  statement  I  received  from  Secretary  Kremer, 
January  2d,  1890 : 

Received  by  the  Flood  Relief  Commission  to  December  16,   1889: 

Money  sent  direct  to  Governor  Beaver,  .         ^1,224,885 

"         received  from  the  Pittsburgh  Relief  Com.,        560,000 

"       "     Philadelphia  '*  "  6oo,coo 

"     New  York      "  "  516.199 

Total  cash  receipts,    .          .          .         ;^2, 90 1,084 
Included  in  the  "  Governor's  Fund"  is  1^150,000  received   from  the 
Boston  Relief  Committee. 

The  Commission  has  distributed  in  casJi  in  Johnstown,  ^2,060,000. 

(Signed),  J.  B.  Kremer,  Secretary. 

The  followinor  amounts  from  foreign  countries  have  been  re- 
ceived  by  the  Flood  Relief  Commission  at  Harrisburg:  Ireland, 
$18,252.24;  Mexico,  $130.40;  Canada,  $4,464.65  ;  England,  %2)Zr 
158.36;  Turkey,  $876.57;  Italy,  $946;  Austria,  $481.70;  Ger- 
many, $34,199.36;  Prussia,  $100;  Wales,  $68.60;  Saxony,  $2,- 
637.20  ;  Persia,  $50  ;  France,   $24,511.13.     Total,  $118,939.67. 

On  November  21st,  Secretary  Kremer  spoke  of  the  nature 
and  difficulties  of  the  distribution  as  follows  : 


TOTAL  OF  LOSSES. 


317 


The  property  losses  of  individuals  and  firms  in  die  Cone- 
maugh  Valley  are  shown  by  die  Commission  records  to  be  be- 
tween ^8,000,000  and  ^9,000,000.  These  do  not  include  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad,  the  Cambria  Iron  Company,  or  the  other  large 
corporations.  Months  of  investigation  have  been  devoted  to  mak- 
ing these  records  accurate.  In  the  first  place,  each  sufferer  was 
called  upon  to  fill  out  a  return  of  his  losses.  This  was  itemized 
like  a  tax  return.  Opposite  each  item  was  put  the  value  as  esti- 
mated by  the  owner.  Then  local  committees  took  hold  of  the  re- 
turns, investigated  each,  and  made  an  estimate  of  the  value.  After 
that  was  done  each  claimant  was  required  to  make  oath  to  the 
value  of  what  he  had  lost.  The  original  figures  underwent  two 
reductions.  The  committees  cut  down  the  original  returns,  and 
the  sworn  returns  were  in  many  cases  less  than  the  reports  of  the 
committees.  Upon  the  final  returns  the  Commission  made  the 
awards.     The  work  shows  a  list  of  fifty-eight  hundred  claimants. 

In  regard  to  relief  for  widows  he  said  :  One  of  the  interestino- 
features  of  what  may  be  called  the  flood  census  is  the  list  of  widows. 
It  contains  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  names.  Widows 
were  placed  in  the  first  class  of  sufferers.  They  were  provided 
for  before  any  payments  were  made  in  property  losses.  The  Com- 
mission was  in  doubt  how  to  deal  with  the  widows.  Various 
propositions  were  made  and  discussed.  The  conclusion  was  that 
the  amount  to  be  allowed  the  widows  should  be  paid  in  cash  rather 
than  in  installments  or  in  homes.  The  Johnstown  widows  have 
received  from  $800  to  ^1,250  apiece.  The  claims  of  widow- 
hood are  now  considered  fully  discharged.  One  of  these  widows 
spent  the  first  night  after  she  was  paid  in  the  lockup.  Several 
have  already  parted  with  their  money.  But  the  cases  where  the 
charity  has  seemed  misapplied  have  been  exceptional,  the  Secre- 
tary says.  Nearly  all  the  widows  have  expressed  gratitude,  and 
have  put  the  money  to  good  uses. 


V. 

SHELTER  AND  REBUILDING. 

The  house  of  every  one  is  to  him  as  his  castle  and  his  fortress. — Cokk. 


I. PRIVATE    RESIDENCES    AND    PLACES    OF    BUSINESS. 

Our  experience  during  the  dreadful  night  of  the  flood  and  in 
the  succeeding  week  made  us  reaHze  vividly  that  the  three  great 
wants  of  man  are  food,  vesture  and  shelter.  The  vast  majority  of 
us  were  without  food;  were  inadequately  clothed  and  without 
homes.  The  remorseless  torrent  had  swept  away  everything  we 
had,  and,  worse  than  all,  many  on  whom  the  survivors  had  depended 
for  the  supply  of  these  prime  necessities  to  human  life  and  com- 
fort were  buried  beneath  the  wrecks  in  the  valley,  or  were  ex- 
piring under  the  injuries  they  had  received. 

The  supply  of  food  came  as  quickly  from  the  sympathizing 
country  as  transportation  was  effected.  For  the  first  few  days, 
before  a  complete  system  of  distribution  could  be  adopted,  we 
managed  to  supply  the  hunger  of  the  women  and  children  by  the 
self-sacrifice  and  fasting  of  many  of  us  who  were  strong.  Clothing 
of  various  sorts  was  sent  from  cities  and  towns,  which  was  gladly 
received,  to  take  the  place  of  the  soaked  and  dilapidated  garments 
with  which  we  emerged  from  the  waters  and  were  rescued  from  the 

o 

debris.  When,  however,  our  anxiety  concerning  food  and  cloth- 
ing was  allayed,  there  loomed  before  us  the  awful  fact  that  the  vast 
majority  of  people  were  without  homes,  and  for  temporary  shelter, 
even  if  that  could  be  found,  must  depend  on  charity.  But  the 
few  houses  that  remained  in  the  city  and  the  homes  on  the  hill- 

(318) 


HOMELESS.  319 

sides  were  not  large.  They  were  not  constructed  with  a  view  to 
such  a  demand  upon  their  hospitahty  and  charity.  Thus  the 
problem  of  temporary  shelter  and  future  rebuilding  became  the 
most  serious  and  difficult  of  solution. 

There  are  times  when  men,  and  even  women  with  their  little 
ones,  can  do  without  comfortable  homes  or  shelter.  The  pioneers 
of  civilization,  though  possessing  noble  blood  and  having  dwelt  in 
lordly  palaces,  cheerfully  endure  the  privations  of  the  camp  or 
bivouac  and  accept  the  dome  of  the  sky  as  their  only  covering. 
The  PilofHms  who  left  their  homes  in  Old  England  and  their 
hospitable  shelter  in  the  good  old  homes  of  Holland,  and  uncovered 
their  heads  to  the  bare  heavens  on  the  banks  of  the  James  River 
and  on  Plymouth's  rocky  shore,  did  not  repine  at  the  fact  that 
there  were  no  houses  to  enter,  that  the  rude  ones  in  which  they 
were  to  dwell  must  be  built  by  themselves ;  made  of  trees  which 
must  be  felled  and  timber  which  must  be  hewed  with  their  own 
hands.  But  they  were  providentially  prepared  for  this.  They 
were  impelled  to  it  by  noble  purposes  and  firm  resolve  to  be  free 
men  under  the  open  canopy  of  heaven  rather  than  slaves  under 
the  gilded  domes  of  royalty.  Here  were  thousands  who  were  the 
victims  of  a  dreadful  calamity.  They  had  lived  always  in  com- 
fortable homes  and  knew  nothing  of  the  sufferings  and  privations 
of  the  homeless.  They  stood  here  gazing  over  the  dire  scene  ; 
their  homes  gone,  whose  fragments  were  inextricably  mingled 
with  the  wreck  of  forests  and  towns.  They  themselves  but  frag- 
ments of  families,  with  torn  garments  and  bruised  limbs,  had  not 
where  to  lay  their  heads.  They  had  not  come  out  of  a  conflict 
with  oppressors,  with  souls  nerved  to  great  sacrifices  and  enter- 
prise. They  were  saved,  and  only  saved,  from  the  fury  of  the 
elements.  The  powers  of  nature  had  combined  their  strength  in 
that  narrow  valley,  and  left  its  defenseless  people  crushed  and 
homeless. 


120 


HO  IV  TO  REBUILD. 


In  this  aspect  of  the  disaster  I  felt  the  force  of  Bishop 
Tillotson's  words :  "  Of  some  calamities  we  can  have  no  relief  but 
from  God  ;  and  what  would  men  do  in  such  a  case  if  it  were  not 
for  God  ?  " 

The  first  temporary  shelters  were,  of  course,  tents  and  hastily 
constructed  shanties.  In  a  few  days  the  fields  around  the  city  pre- 
sented the  aspect  of  military  camps.  These  tents  were,  however, 
inadequate  and  could  not  be  the  abode  of  women  and  children, 
as  they  were  exposed  to  the  hot  sun  and  rains  and  the  dreadful 
miasma  and  stench  that  pervaded  the  valley. 

Now  the  great  problem  arose,  when  and  how  shall  Johnstown 
be  rebuilt  with  suitable  residences  and  business  houses  ?  In  the 
retrospect  we  can  see  that  the  problem  was  made  to  seem  more 
difficult  than  it  really  was.  It  was  complicated  by  permitting 
hordes  of  strangers  to  come  into  the  city,  who  either  encumbered 
the  situation  by  adding  to  the  number  to  be  fed  and  housed,  or 
who  engaged  in  labor  that  should  have  been  exclusively  given  to 
the  citizens.  It  would  have  been  well  to  have  permitted  none  to 
enter  the  precincts  of  the  flood  except  those  who  came  upon 
errands  of  mercy  and  were  duly  accredited  with  passes.  The 
builders,  masons,  carpenters  and  laborers  of  the  city  should  have 
been  furnished  with  the  material,  means  and  implements  to  do  the 
work  of  rebuilding  ;  only  outsiders  should  have  been  employed 
when  there  was  a  deficiency  of  local  laborers.  This  remark  does 
not  apply  to  those  extensive  and  responsible  contractors  who  only 
could  furnish  or  speedily  erect  houses  on  a  large  scale.  But  it  is 
a  fact  that  thousands  of  outsiders  came  upon  us,  and  both  in  labor 
and  charity  benefited  from  the  moneys  that  were  contributed 
solely  for  the  sufferers,  or  were  paid  from  public  funds  which 
should  have  been  used  in  the  employment  of  the  impoverished 
citizens. 

The  first  formal    official   action    for  the  erection  of  business 


WHE  TCHED  A  CCOMMODA  TIONS.  3  2  1 

Structures  was  a  telegram  of  General  Hastings  to  Hoover,  Hughes 
&  Co.,  of  Phillipsburg,  Pa.  From  their  letter,  herewith  appended, 
it  appears  that  nearly  a  month  elapsed  before  the  rebuilding  com- 
menced, and  then  for  business  purposes.  The  people  were  yet 
without  homes,  living  in  tents  and  shanties,  or  still  depending  on  the 
hospitality  of  neighbors  on  the  hills.  A  typical  example  of  living, 
or  rather  existence,  was  given  by  the  New  York  World  corre- 
spondent four  months  after  the  flood  :  "  Let  us  enter  this  house, 
for  example.  It  is  a  frame  house,  once  comfortable,  but  of  little 
pretensions.  The  clapboards  on  front  and  sides  have  all  been 
stripped  off,  laying  bare  the  first  and  second  floors.  The  roof  was 
damaged,  but  has  been  repaired.  There  is  no  stairway,  but  a  lad- 
der leads  to  the  upper  floors.  Up  under  the  roof  you  will  notice 
that  a  little  glazed  window  has  been  put  in,  and  behind  it,  in  two 
garret  rooms,  so  low  that  you  would  knock  your  head  against  the 
shingles  if  you  tried  to  walk  upright,  lives,  or  rather  camps,  a 
family  who  never  before  knew  the  discomforts  of  roughing  it. 
The  wife  lies  on  a  bed  of  sickness — a  sickness  not  improved,  I 
imagine,  by  the  knocking  of  the  carpenters'  hammers  all  about 
her.  The  husband  gets  a  small  income,  enough  to  support  him 
and  a  little  better,  but  money  is  not  so  plenty  with  him  that  he  can 
afford  to  push  work  on  the  house  very  much.  If  the  share  of  the 
relief  fund  which  is  ultimately  coming  to  him  had  been  paid,  as  it 
ought,  a  month  ago,  his  family  would  now  be  far  better  prepared 
to  face  the  angry  blasts  of  winter. 

"  This  case  is  a  fair  sample  of  many.  It  is  not  an  extreme  one 
by  any  means — there  are  many  better  off,  and  many,  alas  !  far 
worse." 

Previousto  this,  a  number  of  the  Hoover,  Hughes  &  Co. 's  houses 
had  been  erected  and  were  occupied.  This  correspondent  remarks  : 
"  There  were  scattered  over  the  plain  many  newly-constructed 
board-houses,  wearing  no  other  color  than  that  of  natural  wood. 


322 


OKLAHOMA  HOUSES. 


These  were  miserable  little  sieves,  called  Oklahomas,  and  the  larger 
and  better  Hughes  houses,  which,  though  far  from  comfortable, 
must  furnish  shelter  to  thousands  through  the  comingf  winter." 

The  disposal  of  the  Hughes  houses  was  by  the  House  Distrib- 
uting Committee  to  those  who  made  application  and  who  were  ap- 
proved by  the  committee.  On  July  19th,  1889,  the  names  were 
published  to  whom  one  hundred  and  four  two-story  houses  were 
allotted  to  be  erected.  This,  of  course,  meant  that  it  would  be 
some  time  in  August  before  they  were  ready  for  occupancy. 

The  outside  world  can  never  know  the  experience  of  the 
people  of  the  Conemaugh  Valley  during  the  summer  and  fall.  The 
patient  endurance  of  the  life  that  this  gentle,  refined  American  com- 
munity was  forced  to  live ;  their  heroic  self-control,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  means  of  relief,  which  their  sympathizing  countrymen 
had  so  quickly  contributed,  was  so  long  withheld  from  them,  can- 
not be  fully  appreciated.  This  community  of  intelligent  and  up- 
right Americans  was  crowded  together  for  months  in  all  kinds  of 
shelter  and  uncomfortable  ways.  They  were,  for  the  most  part, 
brought  up  in  Christian,  comfortable  homes,  and  accustomed  to 
refined  or  gentle  associations.  They  had  sensitive  natures,  deli- 
cate instincts,  which  would  hide  their  tortures  of  spirit  rather  than 
make  them  known.  Many  of  these  persons  had  lots  where  their 
vanished  houses  had  stood,  and  four  hundred  dollars,  within  a  few 
days  after  the  flood,  would  have  relieved  their  burdened  hearts,  and 
enabled  them  to  provide  a  comfortable  shelter  for  their  families  as 
soon  as  the  removal  of  the  debris  and  obstruction  would  permit. 

A  scheme  for  housing  the  people  was  adopted  by  which  per- 
sons could  obtain  what  was  known  as  an  "  Oklahoma  "  at  a  certain 
price  for  a  large  or  a  small  structure.  At  first  there  was  great 
clamor  for  houses,  and  persons  rushed  to  the  committee  to  secure 
them.  The  wiser  people  abstained,  and  urged  the  committee,  at 
least  members  of  it,  to  abandon   the   system.     A   number  of  the 


THE  HUGHES'  HOUSES.  323 

houses  arrived.  After  they  were  seen,  the  clamor  for  them  ceased, 
and  many  who  had  obtained  them  regretted  that  the  value  of  a 
flimsy  building,  unfitted  for  this  climate,  was  to  be  deducted  from 
the  sum  of  their  share  of  the  fund  for  distribution.  The  demand 
ceased,  and  a  few  "  Oklahomas  "  now  stand  as  monuments  of  the 
folly  of  those  who  procured  them. 

Johnstown,  Pa.,  December  i  6th,  1889. 
Rev.  David  y.  Beale,yoImstown,Pa. 

Dear  Sir: — As  per  your  request  we  herewith  submit  a  short 
history  of  our  work  done  at  Johnstown  and  in  the  Conemaugh 
Valley,  brought' about  through  the  great  destruction  of  property 
on  the  afternoon  of  May  31st.  Prior  to  our  coming  to  Johnstown 
for  the  commencement  of  our  work  very  little  had  been  done  in 
the  line  of  building,  except  the  erection  of  commissaries  and  camps 
for  flood  sufferers  and  to  quarter  the  large  body  of  men  engaged 
in  clearing  up  the  debris. 

In  answer  to  a  telegram  received  from  Gen.  Hastings,  our  Mr. 
Hughes  arrived  at  Johnstown  on  Wednesday  morning  at  3.  a.  m., 
and  was  obliged  to  pass  the  balance  of  the  night  at  the  Pennsyl- 
vania freight  depot.  Early  next  morning  he  presented  himself  to 
Gen.  Hastings,  who,  as  agent  for  the  Flood  Relief  Commission, 
appointed  him  Master  Carpenter  for  that  Commission.  He  was  in- 
formed that  it  had  been  decided  to  erect  temporary  store-rooms  to 
enable  the  business  men  flooded  out  to  resume  business.  These 
buildings  it  was  decided  to  erect  on  the  Public  Park  ground.  Our 
Mr.  Hughes  at  once  submitted  several  plans,  and  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  same  day,  at  request  of  Gen.  Hastings,  a  special  meeting 
of  Council  was  held,  granting  the  use  of  the  Public  Park  grounds 
for  the  temporary  store-room  buildings  for  eighteen  months,  and 
also  adopted  one  of  the  several  plans  submitted  by  Mr.  Hughes. 
Governor  James  A.  Beaver  arrived  from  Cresson  that  same  even- 


324  SPEEDY  WORK. 

ing-  and  accepted  our  proposal  to  erect  fifty  20x40  feet  store-rooms 
with  offices  above,  to  be  completed  in  two  weeks  ;  also  arranged 
with  us  to  erect  the  three  hundred  and  ten  Chicago  ready-made 
houses  as  fast  as  they  arrived.  On  July  3d  a  contract  was  made 
with  the  Flood  Relief  Commission  for  the  erection  of  two  hun- 
dred four-roomed  houses  constructed  after  a  plan  made  and  sub- 
mitted by  our  Mr.  Hughes.  A  further  contract  was  made  on  August 
3d  for  one  hundred  additional,  with  an  option  for  one  hundred 
more  if  needed.  The  latter  were  ordered  August  15th,  making  a 
total  of  four  hundred  four-roomed  houses  known  as  the  "Huehes" 
house,  which  name  they  are  liable  to  retain  in  the  Conemaugh 
Valley  for  years  to  come. 

As  soon  as  the  contract  for  the  temporary  store-rooms  was  ac- 
cepted, our  Mr.  Hughes  telegraphed  to  our  main  office  at  Philips- 
burg,  Pa.,  for  the  material,  and  by  Monday,  June  24th,  we  had  a 
number  of  cars  on  hand,  and  on  that  same  day  the  erection  of  the 
temporary  store-buildings  was  commenced.  Between  June  24th  and 
September  7th  we  erected  all  the  Chicago  houses  and  about  three 
hundred  and  seventy-five  of  the  Hughes  houses,  out  of  the  four 
hundred  ordered.  We  had  sufficient  force  to  complete  the  entire 
contract  by  that  time,  but  the  Flood  Commission  desired  to  hold 
back  a  number  of  houses  to  provide  for  cases  which  had  been 
overlooked.  During  that  time  we  employed  an  average  of  four 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  and  twenty-five  double  teams,  and  handled 
over  four  hundred  carloads  of  lumber  and  building  material,  which, 
taking  into  consideration  the  many  difficulties  which  had  to  be  sur- 
mounted, such  as  the  almost  impassable  condition  of  the  streets, 
freight  blockades,  and  the  larger  portion  of  the  houses  erected  on 
hillside  and  hilltops  scattered  east  and  west  from  Johnstown,  from 
South  Fork  to  Morrellville,  eleven  miles  apart,  and  north  and 
south,  a  distance  of  five  miles  apart,  makes  us  feel  rather  proud 
of  our  record.     By  a  special  order  of  the  P.  R.    R.  Co.,   our  cars 


TOTAL   OF  (VORK  DONE. 


325 


loaded  with  lumber  at  our  mills  were  hurried  through  on  fast 
freight  time.  At  this  point  they  were  put  at  once  into  the  Cambria 
Iron  Company's  yard,  their  engine  promptly  shifting  them  to  our 
side-track,  by  which  means  we  were  enabled  to  get  our  material 
quickly,  and  put  the  work  through  with  dispatch.  Up  to  present 
date  we  have  done  the  following : 

The  Flood  Commission  work,  number  of  Chicago  houses 
erected,  three  hundred  and  ten  (one  hundred  and  three  section 
houses  16x24  and  two  hundred  and  seven  10x20  portable,  known 
as  Oklahoma);  Hughes  houses,  four  hundred  ;  temporary  store- 
rooms, fifty-five  ;  Red  Cross  Hotel  at  Johnstown,  headquarters  for 
State  Board  of  Health,  and  a  large  amount  of  special  work  ordered 
by  the  Commission.  For  private  individuals  and  firms  we  have 
done  the  following :  seven  Hughes  houses,  a  large  brick  addition 
to  Cambria  Iron  Company's  Club  House,  addition  to  Wood,  Mor- 
rell  &  Co.,  Limited,  store-room  (now  in  the  course  of  erection), 
several  of  the  large  buildings  at  Gautler's  Works,  one  brick  stable, 
three  small  frame  stables,  one  large  livery  stable,  two  school  build- 
ings (one  at  Woodvale  and  the  other  In  Cambria  City),  station  for 
P.  R.  R.  at  East  Conemaugh,  double  dwelling  for  P.  R.  R.  at 
Johnstown,  twelve  dwellings  and  additions  to  same,  repaired  the 
brick  residence  of  Mr.  Trochneiser,  and  large  amounts  of  small 
work  too  numerous  to  mention. 

Very  truly. 

Hoover,  Hughes  &  Co. 

2. THE    CHILDREN    AND    THE    SCHOOLS. 

By  the  fireside  still  the  light  is  shining, 

The  children's  arms  round  the  parents  twining. — Muloch. 

The  schools  had  closed  on  Friday  afternoon  for  the  week. 
The  merry  children  had  returned  to  their  homes  and  put  away 
their  books,  glad  at  their  release  from  the  school-room   tasks. 


326 


A  LONG    VACATION. 


They  were  anticipating  and  making  arrangements  for  a  happy 
hoHday  on  the  morrow.  After  dinner  they  were  engaged  in 
childish  sports  and  games,  making  home  bright  with  their  cheerful 
faces,  their  sparkling  eyes  and  ringing  voices.  Little  girls  with 
motherly  instinct  were  absorbed  with  their  dollies,  arranging  their 
wardrobes,  and  arraying  them  in  their  evening  dresses,  or  telling 
them  how  dear  they  were  to  their  own  little  mothers,  and  that 
they  shall  never,  never  let  them  go  out  of  their  sight.  Little 
groups  had  gathered  in  some  favorite  home  and  were  playing  at 
jackstones  or  imaginary  housekeeping.  The  boys  were  devising 
a  game  of  baseball  and  other  out-door  sport,  or  tinkering  about 
the  house  ;  perhaps  they  were  teasing  their  sisters  ;  at  least  they 
were  doing  what  boys  everywhere  do  to  make  a  noise,  a  racket, 
through  the  house,  and  thereby  make  themselves  more  dear 
even  to  those  whom  they  seem  to  annoy.  Little  babes  were  rest- 
ing in  their  cradles  and  in  their  mothers'  arms,  or  cooing  at  the 
pranks  of  the  older  nestlings.  Some  little  ones  were  lying  on 
beds  of  sickness  on  whom  the  anxieties  and  tender  ministries  of 
the  home  were  centered. 

The  holiday  never  came  ;  the  sports  were  not  to  be  enjoyed  ; 
but  a  long  vacation  came  to  those  little  ones,  some  of  whom  will 
never  again  enter  the  school-room.  The  dearly  loved  dollies  were 
suddenly  snatched  from  the  little  mothers.  One  little  girl  was  found 
dead,  with  her  dolly  tightly  clasped  in  her  bosom.  In  the  midst  of  all 
this  childish  life  and  glee  came  the  avalanche  of  destruction.  Amid 
the  crashino-  and  falling  houses  these  little  ones  were  thrown  and 

o  o 

dashed  about,  separated  from  parents  and  each  other,  some  to 
perish,  some  to  be  rescued  by  strangers,  many  of  them  to  be 
orphaned.  This  feature  of  the  calamity  goes  closer  to  the  heart 
of  humanity  than  any  other.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Diller  was  found 
near  my  church,  with  his  babe  in  his  arms  and  his  wife  by  his  side. 
There  is  no  home,  however  well  defended,  however  exempt 


SYMPATHY  FOR  THE  CHILDREN.  329 

from  the  possibility  of  flood  and  tempest,  in  which  our  demoHshed 
homes  do  not  awaken  sympathy.  The  breaking  up  of  their  child- 
Hfe,  the  scattered  and  buried  bodies  of  their  little  ones,  the  sad  lot 
of  the  rescued  orphan — these  are  the  saddest  facts  of  the  flood 
that  touch  humanity's  heart. 

The  illustration  of  the  happy  little  Fenn  group,  which  providen- 
tially I  have  secured  for  this  work,  suggests  to  every  sympathetic 
heart  this  whole  chapter  of  the  flood's  history.  The  fathers  and 
mothers  of  America  need  no  pen  to  dilate  on  the  scene  ;  to  make 
them  realize  what  are  the  unwritten  and  unutterable  experiences  of 
the  parents  of  the  once  happy  homes  in  Conemaugh  Valley.  Nor 
do  they  need  to  be  reminded  of  those  little  ones  whose  fathers  and 
mothers  lie  in  our  cemeteries  or  undiscovered  beneath  the  mud  of 
the  streams  and  valley.  Blessed  are  those  whom  the  heavenly 
Father  took  into  His  own  home  to  be  there  nurtured  and  developed 
into  their  immortal  stature.      They  are  safe  as  well  as  saved. 

Great  concern  was  expressed  about  the  children,  and  we  re- 
ceived special  contributions  for  them  and  offers  of  adoption  for 
many  of  those  who  were  orphaned.  But  for  some  days 
there  did  not  seem  to  be  any  children.  We  had  nearly  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  all  had  been  drowned  or  killed.  The 
day-schools  and  Sunday-schools  could  not  be  held,  and  the  chil- 
dren who  survived  the  flood  were  scattered  over  the  country 
wherever  shelter  could  be  provided.  There  was  no  way,  then,  of 
ascertaining  how  many  survived  and  who  were  dead  or  missing. 
Time  alone  could  reveal  this  when  the  rolls  would  be  called  in  the 
day  and  Sunday-schools. 

There  was  a  class  of  children  to  whom  sympathy  was  not  at 
first  directed,  who  needed  it  more,  for  they  had  not  enjoyed  much 
of  it  in  their  sad  and  impoverished  homes.  It  is  the  poor  class. 
They,  too,  are  the  children  of  the  great  Father  of  us  all.  As  their 
abodes  were  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  towns,  many  of  them  per- 

18 


330 


A  BOY  HERO. 


ished.  An  example  of  child  heroism  is  litde  Joe  W.  Dixon,  a 
member  of  my  church  and  Sunday-school.  He  is  a  newsboy  of 
fifteen,  whose  father  was  employed  in  the  Cambria  Iron  Works, 
He  had  made  enough  money  to  pay  $150  for  a  news-stand  just 
before  the  flood.  As  the  wave  swept  over  the  city,  a  gentleman 
picked  him  up  and  carried  him  to  a  place  of  safety.  From  there 
Joe  saw  the  flood  carry  away  his  stand  with  all  his  stock  and  cap- 
ital. His  father  was  drowned,  his  mother  seriously  injured.  The 
family  thus  became  dependent  on  him,  and  all  his  invested  capital  had 
been  washed  away.  He  went  immediately  to  work  selling  papers, 
without  complaint  and  with  a  brave  heart,  saying :  "  I've  got  to  fix 
it  somehow  to  do  more  business  now  than  I  used  to :  for  my 
father  is  gone,  and  they  will  have  to  look  to  me."  The  ranks  of 
commercial  failure  cannot  show  an  example  of  greater  fortitude 
and  heroism. 

The  public  and  private  schools,  of  course,  were  entirely 
broken  up  for  the  summer.  The  Sunday-schools,  when  they  were 
resumed,  showed  many  vacant  places  of  teachers  and  scholars. 
It  was  by  them  that  we  first  began  to  learn  something  about  the 
fate  and  condition  of  the  children.  The  Sunday-school,  ever  since 
it  was  inaugurated,  has  demonstrated  in  ten  thousand  ways  its 
blessedness  and  its  usefulness.  It  is  in  a  time  like  that  at  Johns- 
town that  its  full  value  is  known.  If  an  atheist,  an  enemy  of  or 
an  objector  to  the  Sunday-school,  could  have  been  present  in  any 
of  our  schools  when  the  teachers  and  children  for  the  first  time 
met  after  the  awful  days,  his  tongue  would  be  henceforth  silent. 
Heaven  ever  bless  and  preserve  the  Sunday-school.  It  is  not 
only  the  nursery  of  the  church  on  earth,  but  it  is  also  the  rallying 
place  of  the  scattered  family  of  God :  it  is  the  shadow  of  the 
home  above  where 

"  Around  the  throne  of  God 
Thousands  of  children  stand." 


TEACHERS  WHO  PERISHED. 


IZ"^ 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

The  public  schools  of  Johnstown  were  among  the  objects  of 
its  pride.  There  were  few  better  anywhere.  Their  destruction 
was  a  great  calamity,  and  their  reconstruction  became  a  serious 
and  difficult  undertaking.  Contributions  were  made  by  teachers 
in  other  counties  and  districts  for  the  help  of  our  teachers. 

The  Board  of  Education  has  been  equal  to  the  exigencies,  and 
is  determined  to  see  that  the  schools  are  maintained.  It  met  on 
September  12th,  and  elected  teachers  for  the  ensuing  term  of 
eight  months.  Provision  was  made  for  opening  twenty-four 
schools,  to  which  the  teachers  elected  were  respectively  assigned. 
The  salaries  authorized  are,  of  course,  inadequate,  and  will  be 
until  the  taxpayers  recuperate  from  their  misfortune.  A  most 
noble  and  worthy  act  of  philanthropy  on  the  part  of  some  wealthy 
person  would  be  a  gift  of  ^2,400,  to  be  equally  divided  among  the 
twenty-four  teachers,  twenty-one  of  whom  are  ladies. 

The  State  Superintendent  of  Schools  and  the  Johnstown 
Superintendent  gave  notice  that  surviving  teachers  would  be  re- 
appointed without  examination,  and  diplomas  or  certificates  that 
were  lost  would  be  replaced  on  application. 

The  teachers  who  perished  were :  Mattie  McDivitt,  Emma 
K.  Fisher,  Laura  Hamilton,  Mary  P.  White,  Jennie  M.  Wells, 
Minnie  Linton,  Maggie  Jones,  Rose  Carroll,  C.  F.  Gallagher, 
Mary  Dowling,  Kate  McAneny,  Miss  Richards  (classical),  and 
Miss  Diehl,  of  Shippensburg. 

3. THE    CHURCHES. 

On  Friday  afternoon.  May  31st,  the  pastors  of  the  churches 
were  making  final  preparations  for  their  Sunday  sermons,  doubt- 
less giving  them  a  cheerful  tone,  to  be  in  harmony  with  beauties  of 
the  summer,  which  the  Lord's  day,  June  2d,  would  usher  in. 

Those  sermons  were  not  preached,  and  doubtless  will  not  be 


332  CONDITION  OF  THE  CHURCHES, 

for  many  months,  if  ever.  There  were  no  services  on  that  day. 
The  pastors  who  escaped,  or  were  uninjured  by  the  flood,  were 
otherwise  engaged.  They  had  a  Divine  call  to  exercise  the  duties 
of  their  ministry  in  ways  they  never  anticipated.  Yet  they  learned 
by  them  more  of  the  virtue  and  power  of  the  religion  of  their 
Divine  Master  than  they  had  ever  known  before. 

The  violent  transformation  from  the  beauty  and  bloom  of 
spring  merging  into  the  calm  and  glory  of  summer,  to  a  scene  of 
tempest,  flood,  death,  desolation  and  ruin,  demonstrated,  as  ser- 
mons can  never  do,  the  reality  and  power  of  the  Christian  faith. 

The  churches  were  not  in  a  condition  to  be  occupied  for  that 
first  Sunday.  The  dawn  of  Saturday  revealed  the  sad  fact  that 
our  stately  and  beautiful  sanctuaries  had  suffered  with  the  rest  of 
the  city.  St.  John's  (R.  C),  St.  Mark's  (Episcopal),  the  Welsh 
Baptist,  Welsh  Methodist,  the  Congregational,  German  Lutheran 
and  German  Reformed  churches  were  destroyed.  The  rector  of 
the  Episcopal  church,  Rev,  Alonzo  P.  Diller,  the  pastor  of  the 
German  Lutheran  church,  Rev.  John  P.  Lichtenberg,  the  Rev. 
E.  W.  Jones,  D.D.,  of  the  Congregational  church,  and  Rev. 
George  Wagoner,  M.D.,  of  the  United  Brethren,  perished. 

The  Baptist  and  Evangelical  Association  churches  were  very 
slightly  damaged,  and  they  were  quickly  ready  for  occupancy.  The 
English  Lutheran  church  was  damaged  only  by  water,  and  was  soon 
repaired.  ^  The  Presbyterian  church,  one  of  the  largest  in  the  city, 
was  injured  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  floor  having  settled  about 
a  foot  and  a  half.  As  the  pastor  had  been  appointed  to  take  charge 
of  identifying  the  recovered  bodies,  and  as  it  was  uncertain  how 
long  the  church  would  be  unfit  for  the  use  of  the  congregation, 
it  was  decided  to  utilize  it,  in  its  present  condition,  as  a  morgue 
under  the  immediate  supervision  of  the  pastor.  Some  persons 
objected  to  this  on  grounds  of  sentiment.  The  pastor  and  others 
deemed  it  a  humane  act  and  a  religious  duty.     There  were  so 


PHARISEEISM  STILL  RAMPANT. 


Ill 


many  reasons  for  immediate  identification  of  the  bodies  recovered — 
moral,  legal  and  family.  There  were  no  large  and  protected 
rooms  where  the  bodies,  and  the  valuables  which  were  found  on 
them,  would  be  secure  from  intrusion  and  robbery. 

Regard  for  the  dead  and  the  living  required  us  to  suppress 
our  sentiments,  and  yield,  for  a  time,  to  what  seemed  to  us  a  re- 
ligious duty.  We  did  what  we  had  a  right  to  suppose  the  Master 
of  our  faith  would  have  done  if  He  had  been  personally  present. 
There  were  many  occasions  on  which  He  offended  the  senti- 
ments of  His  own  disciples  as  well  as  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees. 
Peter  rebuked  Him  several  times  for  doing  what  he  imagined  was 
unseemly  for  the  Son  of  God.  But  He  in  turn  rebuked  Peter  for 
knowing  so  little  of  the  spirit  and  aim  of  His  kingdom.  He  de- 
nounced the  Pharisees  unsparingly,  whose  false  conception  of  holy 
things  caused  them  to  sink  the  consideration  for  human  suffering 
and  woe  out  of  sight  beneath  their  frigid  literalism.  They  would 
hale  Him  before  the  authorities  of  the  Church  and  turn  Him  out 
of  the  synagogue  for  healing  the  sick  or  raising  the  dead  on  the 
Sabbath  day.  They  would  not  hesitate  to  take  their  own  ox  or 
ass  from  a  pit  on  the  Sabbath,  which  necessitated  great  labor,  but 
condemned  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  for  restoring  the  paralytic  to 
health  and  giving  him  strength  to  walk  and  carry  his  bed.  That 
Phariseeism  is  not  yet  extinct  which  will  use  holy  things  for  its 
own  financial  or  worldly  advancement,  and  object  to  their  use  in 
behalf  of  stricken  humanity  when  it  offends  its  sentiment,  or  has 
not  obtained  its  stiff-robed  consent. 

The  first  services  after  the  flood  were  held  on  Sunday,  June 
9th,  at  my  suggestion.  I  had  personally  called  on  Bishop  White- 
head, of  the  Episcopal  Church,  Father  Tahaney,  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  and  the  pastors  of  the  other  churches,  and  arranged  with 
them  for  services  in  different  localities  amid  the  ruins.  Bishop 
Whitehead,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  conducted  service 


334 


UNSHAKEN  FAITH  IN  GOD. 


In  the  Peelorville  school-house  ;  other  services  were  held  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  station,  and  at  the  corner  of  Main  and 
Adam  Streets.  Rev.  Drs.  George  T.  Purvis,  of  Pittsburgh  ;  John 
Fox,  of  Allegheny  City  ;  J.  Logan  Sample,  of  the  Black  Hills, 
Dakota ;  Chaplain  Maguire,  of  the  Fourteenth  Regiment ;  Rev. 
H.  L.  Chapman,  of  Cambria;  Rev.  James  P.  Tahaney,  Rev.  W. 
W.  Moorhead,  and  Rev.  D.  J.  Beale  officiated  at  their  respective 
appointments  on  this  and  succeeding  Sabbaths. 

Those  services  were  indeed  solemn  and  impressive.  Divine 
worship  had  never  been  held  and  the  Divine  truth  never  preached 
under  such  circumstances.  Around  the  assembled  worshipers  was 
a  scene  of  destruction  and  desolation  that  was  fearfully  sad.  The 
homes  of  those  worshipers  were  scattered  fragments,  and  their 
loved  ones  crushed  or  buried  in  the  debris  at  their  feet,  and  their 
plans  and  hopes  in  life  destroyed. 

Yet  the  storm  and  flood  had  not  shaken  their  faith  in  God  or 
in  the  promises  of  the  Redeemer.  They  sang  the  songs  of  Zion, 
lifted  up  their  hearts  in  prayer,  and  heard  the  assuring  words  of 
grace.  They  took  heart  from  this  worship  to  renew  the  struggle 
of  life.  They  determined  first  of  all  to  build  again  the  "  walls  of 
Jerusalem  ;"  to  **  restore  its  waste  places." 

In  this  work  the  various  denominations  were  assisted  by  their 
sister  churches  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  The  Presbyterians 
sent  in  the  aggregate  about  ^16,000;  $8,000  for  the  congregation, 
and  nearly  $8,000  for  repairing  the  church  and  parsonage.  The 
Baptists  contributed  $9,000.  The  Evangelical  and  Lutheran  edi- 
fices suffered  little  damage  and  did  not  need  much  help.  The 
Episcopal  congregation  has  been  enabled  to  erect  a  neat  and  com- 
fortable chapel.  Rev.  W.  H.  Bates,  pastor  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  says  that  he  and  the  Committee  of  Classis  have  received 
for  himself,  for  the  rebuilding  of  his  church,  and  for  his  people, 
over  three  thousand  dollars.     I  could  secure  no  reports  from  the 


A  NEWSPAPER'S  TRIBUTE. 


335 


Other  churches,  except  their  grateful  assurances  that  they  received 
sympathy  and  aid  from  their  sister  churches. 

"Where  so  much  good  work  has  been  promptly  performed  it 
is  difficult  and  might  appear  invidious  to  discriminate  ;  but  the  ser- 
vice rendered  by  the  various  church  organizations  is  worthy  of 
being  noted  ;  and  among  such  societies  that  were  active  in  reliev- 
ing the  needy  was  that  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  under  the  wise 
direction  of  Rev,  Dr.  Beale,  its  pastor.  Telegrams  and  letters 
poured  unto  him  from  all  sections  of  the  eastern  part  of  this  State, 
and  from  New  Jersey  and  New  York,  asking  for  particulars  as  to 
the  wants  of  the  people,  and  boxes  of  food,  clothing,  and  even 
bedding  were  sent  to  him  as  soon  as  railroad  facilities  permitted. 
A  room  was  then  secured  at  the  corner  of  Main  and  Adam 
Streets,  which  was  put  in  charge  of  Mrs.  Dr.  Beale,  Mrs.  Jones  and 
Miss  Duncan,  of  this  place,  Miss  Graham,  of  Wilkinsburg,  and 
Mrs.  Dr.  Marchand,  of  Irwin,  who  distributed  edibles,  wearing 
apparel,  etc.,  to  multitudes  of  every  name,  grade  and  profession 
who  were  left  in  destitute  circumstances." — Johnstown  Democrat. 


VI. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 


I. CONSOLIDATION. 

The  most  important  feature  of  the  reconstruction  is  the 
consolidation  of  the  eight  boroughs  into  the  one  city  of  Johnstown. 
An  Act  of  Legislature  was  passed  in  the  spring  of  1889,  providing 
for  erection  into  cities  of  the  third  class  towns  or  contiguous 
boroughs  of  not  less  than  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  Johnstown 
becomes  the  first  city  thus  chartered  under  that  Act. 

This  has  been  the  aim  of  Mr.  Arthur  J.  Moxham  and  others 
for  a  long  time.  They  have  urged  it  frequently,  and  the  terrible  dis- 
aster which  was  common  to  Johnstown  proper  and  the  boroughs 
determined  them  to  renew  efforts  to  effect  the  consolidation,  and 
thus  endow  the  new  Johnstown  with  all  the  dignity,  authority  and 
advantage  of  a  city.  The  considerations  with  which  Mr.  Moxham 
enforced  this  proposition  are  so  forcible  and  applicable  to  other 
towns  and  boroughs  in  the  State  that  a  few  of  them  are  nere  pre- 
sented, with  a  hope  that  they  will  follow  the  example  : 

"As  a  matter  of  common  sense,  if  thirty  thousand  people 
want  to  do  a  thing,  they  can  best  do  it  by  clubbing  together 
and  acting  as  a  unit,  and  just  now  they  have  something  to  do. 
They  have  to  get  this  place  on  its  feet. 

"  A  city  with  well-paved  streets,  cleanly  sidewalks,  and  build- 
ings which  are  pleasing  to  the  eye;  in  which  local  transit  is 
rapid  and  good,  in  which  police  protection  and  discipline  are  reli- 
able, is  just  as  sure  to  have  a  pleasanter,  healthier  and  more  pro- 

{336) 


HEASONS  FOR  CONSOLIDATION. 


Z2>7 


gressive  life,  as  a  cleanly  and  well-regulated  household  is  sure  to 
enjoy  life  more  than  the  household  accustomed  to  slovenliness  and 
dirt.  Let  any  public  question  arise,  how  much  quicker  the  machi- 
nery of  a  city  can  be  brought  to  bear  in  influencing  results  for  its 
own  good  than  that  of  seven  or  eight  puny  little  boroughs. 

"  Would  we  have  suffered  the  calamities  of  the  flood  if  we 
had  had  a  city  organization  here  ?     I  answer  emphatically,  No. 

"The  facts  which  were  known  to  all  were  these:  A  danger- 
ous body  of  water  existed  in  our  neighborhood,  and  grave  doubts 
were  entertained  on  all  sides  as  to  the  security  of  the  structure 
which  dammed  it  in. 

"  We  then  had  the  strange  spectacle  of  the  whole  community,  as 
a  community,  not  even  taking  the  trouble  to  investigate  the  possible 
danger.  The  reason  that  nothing  was  done  is  very  evident — sim- 
ply this :  That  there  has  never  been  in  these  valleys  a  competent 
organization,  representative  of  the  community  as  a  whole.  There 
have  been  a  baker's  dozen  of  organizations,  each  representing 
a  homoeopathic  proportion  of  the  community.  I  will  venture  the 
assertion  that  if  we  had  had  a  city  organization,  and  consequently 
had  become  accustomed  to  acting  as  a  unit,  years  ago  would  this 
question  of  the  South  Fork  dam  have  been  settled. 

"Well,  we  have  paid  for  our  criminal  carelessness — paid  for 
it  with  the  lives  of  those  dear  to  us — paid  for  it  with  our  homes, 
and  with  our  savings. 

"You  cannot  build  even  a  house  without  tools  to  work  with, 
still  less  can  you  control  and  influence  public  results  without  the 
proper  machinery  to  do  it  with.  Take  the  history  of  affairs  in 
Johnstown  since  the  flood.  We  have  had  many  committees. 
Please  point  out  to- me  among  all  these  one  committee,  which,  when 
it  speaks  on  a  general  public  question,  can  speak  as  representa- 
tive of  the  whole  community.  There  is  not  one  committee  in 
existence  that  has  not  done  its  work  nobly  and  well.     There  is 


LEADERS  OF  THE  CONSOLIDATION. 


not  one  that  has  not  earned  the  gratitude  of  the  people  ;  but  there 
is  also  not  one,  which,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  is  to-day  in  a 
position  to  speak  for  the  whole  people. 

"  Many  public  questions  have  arisen  and  are  arising  from  day  to 
day,  and  they  are  put  back  to  slumber,  and  no  action  taken  upon 
them.  Why  ?  Because  there  is  no  machinery  with  which  to  reach 
the  people  excepting  the  cumbersome  machinery  of  lots  of  little 
boroughs,  and  because  life  is  too  short  and  time  is  too  quick  for  any 
sensible  man  to  undertake  the  problem  to  try  to  get  every  little 
borough  to  think  with  the  others  on  the  same  question. 

"  With  a  city  organization  our  city  would  respond  to  every 
public  need  like  a  well-balanced  piece  of  machinery  ;  with  your 
borough  organizations  it  takes  dynamite  to  move  you. 

"With  a  city  organization  you  would  govern  yourselves,  and 
yourselves  control  the  results  which  affect  you.  With  your  borough 
organization  you  are  passive  like  a  flock  of  sheep,  and  until  a  dog 
or  wolf  gets  after  you,  or  until  something  comes  along  with  a  bell 
on  its  collar  to  lead  you,  you  do  not  move. 

"  I,  for  one,  am  looking  forward  to  the  election  with  great  long- 
ing. I  am  hoping  that  it  will  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  for  us 
all,  with  the  dead  past  so  utterly  put  behind  us  that  not  even  the 
name  be  left,  and  in  the  place  of  a  lot  of  little  mismanaged  bor- 
oughs without  a  single  collective  name,  but  called  Johnstown,  by 
courtesy,  I  would  like  to  see  the  birth  of  a  new  and  vigorous  city 
called  Conemaugh  Valley — a  city  that  has  witnessed  the  greatest 
sorrow  of  the  times,  and  that  has  enjoyed  the  greatest  tenderness. 
It  cannot  fail  to  have  a  grand  future  before  it  if  it  only  profits  by 
what  it  has  learned — we  have  learned  so  much.  " 

That  the  consolidation  has  now  been  effected  is  due  chiefly  to 
the  efforts  and  influence  of  W.  Horace  Rose,  A.  J.  Moxham,  John 
P.  Linton,  W.  H.  Story,  Dr.  J.  C.  Sheridan,  Hon.  John  M.  Rose 
and  Rev.  James  P.  Tahaney. 


THE  NEW  JOHNSTOWN.  o^-i^i^ 

The  population  of  the  new  Johnstown  is  as  follows : 
Cambria  ........         2,902 

Conemaugh 3,971 

Coopersdale     .......  573 

Grubbtown  .......       497 

Johnstown       .......       10,253 

Millville 2,680 

Prospect.         .......  819 

AVoodvale 1,247 

Total,         .         .         .       22,942 

In  addition  to  these  boroughs,  Moxham  and  the  district  lying 
above  and  along  the  Bedford  Pike,  and  between  the  southern  limit 
of  Johnstown  and  the  villa«-e  of  Walnut  Grove,  will  become  part 
and  parcel  of  the  city  as  soon  as  the  proper  proceedings  can  be 
had. 

The  population  of  Moxham  is  estimated  at  1,000,  and  the 
other  territory  has  fully  800.  This  would  bring  the  total  popula- 
tion of  the  new  city  up  to  24,742. 

If  to  this  is  added  the  population  of  that  portion  of  Upper 
Yoder  township  lying  immediately  contiguous  to  Grubbtown,  and 
whose  citizens  have  joined  with  those  of  Moxham  in  asking  the 
Court  for  annexation  to  Johnstown,  then  the  population  of  the 
city  will  be  over  25,000. 

It  is  regretted  that  our  friends  at  East  Conemaugh  and 
Franklin  could  not  see  their  way  clear  to  join  us  in  the  creation  of 
the  new  Johnstown,  but  it  is  hoped  they  will  eventually  come  into 
the  family. 

2. ADDITIONAL    ECHOES    FROM    THE    FLOOD. 

These  papers  of  participants  in  the  flood,  and  observers  of  its 
scenes  and  effects,  were  received  too  late  to  be  inserted  in  the 
first  part.     They,  however,  give  additional  interest  to  the  closing 


340 


HOUSES  GRINDING  EACH  OTHER. 


pages,  and  will  be  all  the  more  appreciated  for  coming  after  the 
many  details  about  the  situation. 

Mr.  William  F.  Lewis,  who  has  charge  of  the  Cambria  roll- 
shop,  was  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  track  opposite  Rosen- 
steel's  tannery  twenty-five  minutes  before  the  torrent  came  upon 
us.  He  then  saw  Mr.  Haselbein  and  Miss  Carrie  Williams  on  a 
little  knoll  near  the  bridge  that  crosses  the  Conemaugh,  with  the 
spray  of  the  swollen  stream  splashing  around  them.  He  waved 
his  handkerchief  at  them,  and  Miss  Carrie  held  up  a  piece  of  cheese 
and  cracker  in  her  hand,  indicating  that  that  was  all  the  dinner 
they  were  having. 

In  about  twenty-five  minutes  after,  he  (Mr.  Lewis)  was 
down  at  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  depot  and  saw  the  avalanche 
of  water  coming  on  the  town.  He  saw  the  steeple  of  the  German 
Lutheran  church  fall,  then  Mr.  Kilgore's  residence,  and  after  that 
the  Assistance  engine-house.  He  noticed  that  the  houses  on 
Iron  Street  rose  bodily  and  began  to  twist  and  grind  one 
another  to  pieces ;  and  after  that  everything  changed  as  in  a 
kaleidoscope,  and  he  next  found  himself  asking  a  man  who  stood 
by  if  it  was  really  so  that  the  town  was  swept  away.  The  next 
morning  the  body  of  Miss  Williams  was  found  at  the  head  of  Main 
Street.  He  said  that  when  the  torrent  came,  men  and  women  on 
Prospect  Hill  wrung  their  hands,  tore  their  hair,  and  threw  them- 
selves upon  the  ground  in  agony. 

Mr.  Wener,  wife  and  child  were  drowned.  The  child  was 
found  at  the  feet  of  its  parents,  and  Mrs.  Wener  with  her  arm  on 
her  husband's  shoulder. 

On  the  day  before  the  flood  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webber,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Curtis  Williams,   Mr.  and   Mrs.  Longacre,   Mr.  William  F. 


WAITING  AND   WA  TCHING. 


;4i 


Lewis,  Miss  Carrie  Williams  and  Miss  Menocher  spent  the  day  at 
the  Viaduct  and  Mineral  Point.  They  ate  their  lunch  on  the  Old 
Portage  Road,  near  the  tunnel.  When  they  reached  Mineral 
Point  they  all  joined  in  singing  some  patriotic  and  sacred  pieces. 
The  people  gathered  around  them  as  they  sang. 

Mrs.  S.  W.  Shields  says  :  In  the  morning  Charlie  came  home 
from  town  ;  told  me  he  could  not  get  to  the  Johnstown  office  for  high 
water,  and  then  it  was  eight  feet  at  Sandy  Vale  Cemetery.  I  was 
not  surprised  at  all,  knowing  that  was  a  most  frequent  occurrence. 
So  we  waited  and  watched  the  water  until  in  the  afternoon  (Charlie 
staying  at  home).  Then  I  proposed  that  the  children  and  myself 
go  up  to  Canan's  to  see  what  the  water  looked  like.  It  was  then 
coming  into  my  yard.  It  was  all  the  dry  ground  on  that  side  of 
the  street.  The  thought  struck  me  that  I  had  better  make  our- 
selves comfortable,  for  we  might  not  get  back  ;  yet  at  the  same 
time  I  never  dreamed  that  we  would  be  washed  out.  But  I  paid 
attention  to  the  monitor  and  made  us  all  comfortable,  and  the 
clothes  we  put  on  we  wore  for  weeks  after.  We  were  sitting  on 
the  porch,  waiting  and  watching  for  what  was  to  come.  I  looked 
over  at  the  hill  above  the  Conemaugh  (after  the  whistle  blew), 
saw  the  heavy  black  cloud  and  wondered  what  was  in  store  for  us, 
but  did  not  speak.  When  Charlie  asked  what  that  noise  was,  I 
heard  it  and  thought  it  was  hail.  Told  all  that  were  on  the  porch 
to  come  in  quick,  that  we  might  be  killed  by  what  I  thought  was 
hail.  We  went  in  at  once  and  up-stairs.  Looked  out ;  saw  one 
man  wade  across  the  street  in  water  to  his  waist.  I  then  lookeci  up 
to  the  corner  of  Dibert  and  Morris  Sts.;  saw  a  man  trying  to  catch 
a  tree.  The  water  was  up  to  his  neck,  and  with  the  same  glance  I 
saw  two  men  and  a  woman  trying  to  climb  the  electric-light  pole. 
They  were  partly  under  water.  Then  I  heard  the  call  to  come  to  the 
attic,  which  we  all  did  with  one  accord.     We  had  just  reached  it 


342 


A  CROWDED  ATTIC. 


when  I  heard  a  terrible  scream  and  breaking  of  glass.  It  was 
Miss  Ida  Hamilton,  who  screamed.  She  came  to  the  attic,  fell  on 
her  knees  and  thanked  God  for  her  escape,  and  also  that  her  mother 
had  been  saved  (in  the  house  at  the  other  side  of  theirs).  She 
was  a  Catholic  Christian.  We  had  not  been  in  the  attic  fif- 
teen minutes  when  some  one  said:  "There  is  Mrs.  Tittle  on  a 
roof."  Then  beran  the  work  of  breaking-  the  windows.  Some  of 
the  men  got  a  plank  across  to  Mr.  Joseph's  roof,  their  house 
having  moved  some  twenty  feet,  but  could  not  strike  us,  for  the 
reason  that  we  were  on  a  terraced  lot,  four  feet  above  the  street. 
Who  were  the  first  brought  in  I  cannot  tell,  but  in  a  very  short 
time  the  attic  was  full.  Some  cried,  some  prayed,  and  I  waited, 
feeling  that  this  was  God's  time  now.  We,  I  then  thought,  had 
had  our  time.  Dick,  Albert  and  Anna  were  standing  with 
me.  Dick  asked  :  "Mother,  will  we  die  ?"  I  answered  :  "  I  cannot 
tell ;  but  one  thing  I  do  know,  that  God  does  all  things  well,  and  if 
He  wants  us  to-night  He  will  take  us ;  if  not,  He  will  find  a  way 
for  our  escape.  We  will  go  and  sit  down,  and  see  what  the  Lord 
will  do,"  which  we  did,  and  Dick  never  asked  another  question. 
Mrs.  Henry,  from  Market  Street,  and  her  family,  made  a  very  nar- 
row escape.  Just  as  their  house,  with  the  family  on  the  roof,  came 
past  the  market-house,  it  fell,  throwing  the  bricks  all  over  them, 
hitting  Mrs.  H.  and  her  daughter,  injuring  them  so  that  they  were 
not  over  it  for  weeks.  Mrs.  McClay  had  left  one  of  her  servants, 
Mary  Manealy,  behind,  which  they  lamented  very  much.  Mrs. 
Henry  insisted  that,  as  their  house  came  past  Mrs.  McClay's,  they 
saw  some  one  in  the  attic,  on  her  knees  ;  and  about  4  o'clock, 
or  just  as  soon  as  they  could  see,  Mr.  Murphy  went  across  the 
roofs  and  found  old  Mary  Manealy,  safe  and  sound,  wrapped  up 
in  Lizzie  Tittle's  fur-lined  circular. 

The  little  boy  of  B.  F.  Hills  fretted  all  night  for  his  papa  and 
sister  (she  being  drowned).     He  found  his  father  next  day  on  the 


SIXTY-NINE  IN  ONE  ATTIC.  343 

hill.  Mrs,  Tittle  brought  in  with  her  two  little  children,  who  had 
been  taken  in  the  afternoon  to  her  house  for  safety ;  so  when  the 
big  wave  came  she  kept  them.  Their  parents  found  them  next 
day.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Canan  divided  with  every  one  that  was  brought 
in.  When  we  came  out  the  next  morning,  we  walked  out  on  planks 
laid  on  the  sideboard,  the  upholstered  chairs  and  extension  tables 
through  Mrs.  Harshberger's  house,  over  the  roofs  of  some  of  the 
houses  that  were  broken  up.  As  I  went  I  looked  across  to  the  hill 
that  we  were  going  to  for  refuge,  and  saw  some  men  carrying  some- 
one on  a  stretcher.  They  went  to  where  I  was  going,  and  upon  in- 
quiry I  found  she  was  it  wife  of  Mahlon  Speck,  who  had  been  con- 
fined Thursday  night ;  and  on  Friday,  when  the  big  wave  came,  she 
had  to  be  taken  to  the  attic.  She  lay  there  all  night  without  a  light, 
and  no  one  with  her  but  her  husband.  Saturday  some  men  carried 
her  out  over  the  roofs  of  houses ;  and  when  I  left  her,  on  Monday 
morning,  she  was  doing  well.  In  Mr.  Canan's  attic  there  were 
sixty-nine  persons.  Of  this  number  there  were  eighteen  or  twenty 
children.  One  of  the  men  went  out  and  got  a  loaf  of  dry  bread, 
which  was  divided  among  the  little  ones  ;  and  it  was  from  Friday 
morning  until  Saturday  noon  that  no  food  crossed  our  lips. 

Mr,  Josiah  T,  Evans  resided  on  Vine  Street,  and  Hved  in  good 
style,  with  his  family.  His  children  consisted  of  Maggie  and  her  four 
brothers,  all  younger  than  she.  Maggie  was  making  preparations 
to  visit  Europe,  expecting  much  enjoyment  in  the  trip. 

On  Friday,  the  31st  of  May,  at  the  time  of  high  water,  Mr.  E. 
finding  the  water  in  his  house  a  foot  high  and  rising,  started  with 
his  wife,  daughter  and  three  youngest  sons  in  a  buggy,  to  go  to  the 
hillside.  Fondly  kissing  them,  they  separated,  with  the  understand- 
ing that,  if  possible,  the  buggy  would  be  returned,  to  take  the  two 
elder  boys  to  the  same  refuge. 

But  Mrs.  Evans  seems  to  have  been  frightened  by  the  rising 


344  CAPTAIN  HARTS  STATEMENT. 

waters,  and  entered  the  house  of  her  friend,  Mrs.  Pritchard,  who 
was  alone  with  her  four  children.  They  all,  the  two  mothers  and 
their  seven  children,  went  to  the  attic,  and  there,  looking  out  from 
under  the  mansard  roof,  they  doubtless  watched  the  ruin  around 
them,  until  they  themselves  were  swallowed  up,  when  the  three- 
story  house  was  engulfed  in  the  terrible  flood,  as  it  swept  over  that 
portion  of  the  town,  and  they  were  all  lost. 

Mr.  Evans  and  his  two  boys  meantime  remained  in  their  own 
house,  supposing  that  the  mother  and  those  with  her  were  safe ; 
and  from  the  upper  windows  they  beheld  the  surging  waters  rise 
and  eventually  fall,  and  they  found  themselves  the  next  morning 
in  their  own  house  and  safe.  Had  Mrs.  E.  and  the  rest  of  the 
children  remained  at  home,  they  too  would  have  been  saved ;  but 
it  was  not  ordered  so  of  God  ! 

« 

Alexander  N.  Hart,  says:  "When  the  flood  struck  my  house  it 
began  to  tremble  and  move.  I  took  my  two  little  boys,  aged  re- 
spectively 2  and  8  years,  by  the  hands  and  leaped  with  them 
from  the  second-story  window  upon  a  floating  roof.  My  wife  and 
sister  followed  us.  After  being  whirled  by  the  surging  waters  we 
were  driven  against  Rev.  Dr.  Beale's  house,  where  the  family  were 
huddled  in  his  attic  story.  He  helped  us  into  the  room,  which 
our  addition  made  more  crowded.  The  fierceness  of  the  flood 
and  the  sight  of  tumbling  houses  made  us  fear  that  our  refuge 
would  soon  fall.  We  then  determined,  if  possible,  to  escape  over 
the  floating  and  accumulating  roofs  and  wreck  to  Alma  Hall. 
Dr.  Beale  procured  a  rope,  with  which  he  let  us  down  upon  the 
roof  of  a  floating  house,  which  we  secured  to  his  residence. 
There  were  about  twelve  persons,  women  and  children,  besides 
Dr.  Beale,  Mr.  Lloyd,  and  myself.  Dr.  Beale  was  the  last  to 
leave  the  attic,  having  secured  our  escape.  With  great  labor 
we  made  our  way  over  the  roofs  and  debris.     Strewed  upon  and 


RESCUES  AND  AID. 


\M 


fastened  in  the  wrecks  were  the  dead  and  wounded  and  dying. 
It  was  a  heartrending  sight,  and  we  did  what  we  could  on  our  way 
to  help  or  comfort  the  sufferers.  Among  these  I  recognized  Mrs. 
Young  (since  deceased),  her  daughter  Rose  and  son-in-law,  J. 
Fleming.  We  finally  got  into  Alma  Hall,  where  we  spent  the 
night  amid  scenes  that  are  too  sad  to  recall. 

"Too  much  praise  cannot  be  accorded  to  Dr.  Edward  W. 
Matthews,  who,  though  sufferinof  from  broken  ribs,  devoted  the 
night  with  Dr.  Beale  to  helping  others,  dressing  their  wounds 
and  setting  broken  limbs.  One  of  the  saddest  things  was  the 
distressing  cries  of  little  children  for  water  and  food.  The  only 
water  that  could  be  obtained  was  the  drippings  from  the  roof  of 
the  adjoining  bank,  under  which  I  held  a  pitcher. 

"In  the  morning  we  got  out  of  the  second-floor  windows,  and, 
clambering  for  three  squares  over  wrecks  of  houses,  railroad  cars, 
locomotives,  trees  and  every  other  imaginable  thing,  with  dead 
bodies  all  around  us,  we  reached  the  ground,  a  sorrowful  group 
indeed.  Here  I  met  with  seventeen  others,  and  we  immediately 
proceeded  to  effect  some  sort  of  government  for  our  protection 
and  guidance.  Mr.  A.  J,  Moxham  was  chosen  chairman,  and  I  was 
appointed  chief  of  police,  with  full  powers  to  act.  Without  food 
for  twenty-four  hours,  and  with  insufficient  clothing,  I  organized  a 
force  of  four  hundred  men  and  distributed  them  through  the  city, 
to  protect  property  and  the  bodies  of  the  dead  from  thieves,  who 
had  already  begun  to  ply  their  nefarious  vocation.  I  maintained 
this  force  until  General  Hastings  arrived. 

"I  cannot  end  this  account  without  paying  tribute  to  Dr.  David 
J.  Beale,  the  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  During  the 
whole  time  of  the  flood  and  afterv/ard,  he  forgot  himself  in  his 
care  and  ministering  to  us  and  our  suffering  people.  Throughout 
that  dreadful  night  in  Alma  Hall,  he  was  incessant  in  his  attentions, 
though  his  own  wife  and  children  were  among  the  suffering  multi- 
19 


o 


48  A  ROAR  LIKE  THUNDER. 


tude.  By  his  kind,  consoling  words,  by  his  calmness  and  self- 
control,  by  his  fervent  prayers,  directing  us  to  our  only  help  in 
this  time  of  trouble,  he  made  it  possible  for  us  to  endure  the 
horrors  of  that  night.  During  the  following  weeks  his  work  and 
services  in  the  morgues  and  among  the  survivors  have  laid  our 
citizens  under  obligations  they  can  never  fully  discharge." 

Mr.  W.  B.  Tice,  who  had  the  handsome  drug  store  at  No. 
31  Portage  Street,  has  written  thus  his  experience  : 

"  My  wife  became  alarmed  at  the  rising  of  the  water,  so  I 
removed  her  and  my  pet  birds  to  the  house  of  a  friend,  Nathan 
Oldham,  in  a  more  elevated  portion  of  the  city. 

"About  9  A.M.  I  returned  to  my  place  of  business.  The 
water  had  begun  to  come  into  the  store,  so  I  went  to  work  to 
save  the  most  valuable  articles  on  the  top  shelves,  which  being 
done  I  returned  to  my  wife.  She  requested  me  to  get  her 
some  clothing  she  had  brought  home  and  ^160  in  money  which  I 
had  just  got  from  the  bank.  While  packing  the  clothes  I  heard 
a  roar  like  thunder,  one  crash  after  another  in  quick  suc- 
cession, and  on  looking  out  of  the  window  I  beheld  the  most 
horrible  sight  I  ever  saw,  and  I  hope  I  never  may  be  called  upon  to 
witness  such  a  scene  again. 

"  The  room  I  was  in  quickly  filled  with  water,  and  in  an  instant 
I  climbed  on  the  roof  by  the  aid  of  the  spouting. 

"The  wall  of  water  which  came  rushing  toward  me  carrying 
everything  before  it  seemed  to  be  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  in  an 
instant,  crash  !  and  our  building  was  raised  aloft  and  whirled  away 
by  the  mad,  rushing,  bounding  and  boiling  waters  of  the  Little 
Conemaugh.  Eight  men  were  on  this  roof,  and  all  around  us  were 
screaming  hundreds  of  men,  women  and  children.  Many  of  them 
were  swept  into  eternity  ;  some  were  praying,  some  weeping  and 
wailing  and  some  cursing. 


AFLOAT  ON  THE  TORRENT.  349 

"I  was  determined  to  keep  my  presence  of  mind  and  save 
myself  and  all  others  that  I  could.  We  sailed  about  three  squares 
when  the  building  struck  the  large  brick  store  of  Wood,  Morrell 
&  Co.  I  clung  to  the  roof  until  it  passed  the  store,  when  I  leaped 
into  the  water  and  swam  to  a  lumber  pile,  which  floated  into  slack 
water  up  the  Stony  Creek,  where  I  had  a  full  view  of  the  terrible 
disaster.  The  Wire  Mills  and  Gautier  Works  fell,  crushing  all 
in  their  way.  Whole  families  of  my  acquaintance  were  entirely 
wiped  out  of  existence.  All  this  time  I  was  still  floating  around, 
and  finally  I  was  caught  by  the  wild  waters  and  whirled  away  and 
over  the  now  famous  stone  bridge  of  the  P.  R.  R.  At  this  time 
the  clock  struck  4,  and  I  then  thought  I  would  never  hear  the  clock 
strike  again.  I  was  attracted  by  a  voice,  and,  looking  about,  I  saw 
a  lady  floating  down  at  a  rapid  rate  and  singing : 

'Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  Thy  bosom  fly, 
While  the  raging  billows  roll, 
While  the  tempest  still  is  high.' 

This  she  sang  as  she  sailed  down  the  valley  of  death.  I  was 
again  compelled  to  jump,  and  after  being  knocked  about  until 
almost  exhausted,  I  reached  another  house-top,  sailing  at  the  rate 
of  about  fifteen  miles  an  hour ;  but,  getting  close  to  shore,  I  again 
jumped,  and  a  mill-man  caught  hold  of  my  hand  and  assisted  me  to 
land  ;  he  was  terribly  excited  and  could  not  speak.  I  helped  him 
to  take  two  more  men  out.  I  went  up  on  the  embankment  and 
looked  across  the  bridge,  which  was  filled  full  of  debris,  and  on  it 
were  thousands  ot  men,  women  and  children,  who  were  screaming 
and  yelling  for  help,  as  at  this  time  the  debris  was  on  fire,  and  after 
each  crash  there  was  a  moment  of  solemn  silence,  and  then  those 
voices  would  be  again' heard  crying  in  vain  for  the  help  that  came 
not.     At  each  crash  hundreds  were  forced  under  and  slain. 


;5o 


A  REUNITED  COUPLE. 


"  I  saw  hundreds  of  them  as  the  flames  approached  throw  up 
their  hands  and  fall  backward  into  the  fire,  and  those  who  had  es- 
caped drowning  were  reserved  for  the  more  horrible  fate  of  being 
burned  to  death.  At  last  I  could  endure  it  no  longer,  and  had  to 
leave,  as  I  could  see  no  more.  I  climbed  the  hillside  where  I  could 
see  the  church  on  fire  close  to  the  house  where  I  had  left  my  wife, 
but  I  could  not  see  the  house,  and  did  not  know  she  was  safe. 

"  A  more  terrible  and  lonesome  night  alone  in  the  woods  and 
rain  I  never  spent,  knowing  that  my  friends  mourned  me  as  dead 
and  I  thought  they  were  all  lost. 

"  I  remember  one  incident  while  I  was  on  the  house-top:  a  train 
of  cars  consisting  of  three  or  four  coaches  came  puffing  along  the 
curve,  and  dashing  into  the  water  gave  two  puffs  and  was  swept 
under  the  mad,  rushing  torrent. 

"I  could  not  cross  the  river  to  see  my  wife  or  let  her  know  of 
my  safety  until  the  next  day,  and  when  I  met  her,  there  was  once 
more  a  happy  but  penniless  and  homeless  couple." 

Colonel  John  P.  Linton  writes :  "  Before  noon  I  was  driven,  with 
my  family,  into  the  second  story  of  my  house,  which  was  situated  on 
the  lower  end  of  Main  Street,  in  Johnstown.  By  3  o'clock  the  water 
was  at  least  four  feet  high  in  the  first  story;  and  as  my  house  stood 
on  high  ground,  I  would  estimate  it  as  nearly  eight  feet  high  in  the 
street  in  front.  Shortly  before  4  o'clock  we  heard  the  loud  and 
doleful  whistling  of  the  engines  at  the  mill,  which  surely  betokens 
a  fire,  and  which  we  at  the  time  supposed  to  be  such  an  alarm. 
I  have  been  informed  since  that  this  was  intended  to  warn  peo- 
ple that  the  South  Fork  dam  had  burst,  and  to  prepare  for  the 
consequences.  To  us,  even  if  we  had  understood  the  purpose 
of  the  alarm,  it  could  have  been  of  no  avail,  as  an  impassable  flood 
of  water  already  isolated  our  house,  and  we  could  not  have  fled 
to  any  place  of  refuge.     Ah,  what  must  it  have  been  at  about  4 


COL.  LINTON'S  EXPERIENCE.  35  I 

o'clock  (as  I  fix  time  from  subsequent  comparison  of  dates),  for 
the7t  I  took  '  no  note  of  time  ; '  an  indescribable  sound  of  rushing 
waters,  crashing-  buildings  and  shrieking  people  was  borne  to  our 
ears,  and  we  rushed  to  the  third  story  of  the  house.  From  the 
window  in  this  story  I  saw  the  advancing  torrent,  many  feet  high, 
and  bearing  before  it  with  terrific  fury  logs  and  broken  buildings 
and  crashing  machinery,  and  preceded  by  what  appeared  to  us  as 
a  cloud  of  smoke.  The  first  wave  seemed  to  follow  the  ofeneral 
course  of  the  Conemaugh  ;  the  second,  which  followed  in  rapid 
succession,  swept  over  Millville  Borough,  carrying  everything  be- 
fore it,  and  the  next,  with  scarcely  a  perceptible  interval,  swept 
along  the  Johnstown  shore  of  the  Conemaugh,  tearing  down  and 
sweeping  away  all  obstructions.  Realizing  at  once  the  danger  in 
which  my  family  would  be  placed  if  our  house  was  knocked 
down,  and  feeling  that  our  most  secure  place  was  on  the  roof,  I 
caused  all  the  family  to  rush  to  a  kind  of  observatory  on  the  top  of 
the  house,  and  promptly  followed  them  myself.  By  the  time  we 
reached  the  roof,  the  torrent  had  reached  the  stone  bridge,  had 
piled  the  debris  high  against  the  arches,  and  recoiling  from  this  ob- 
struction was  setting  back  with  but  slightly  diminished  force,  bear- 
ing up  past  my  house  many  buildings.  One  of  these  buildings 
lodged  for  a  time  on  the  corner  of  the  house,  and  a  heavy  volume 
of  smoke  issuing  from  it  caused  us  to  fear  it  was  on  fire,  and  added 
the  dread  of  a  conflagration  to  the  other  perils  surrounding  us. 
In  a  short  time,  however,  the  larger  portion  of  our  house  fell, 
and  the  dreaded  building  floated  away.  Fortunately,  when  the 
larger  portion  of  our  house  fell,  that  portion  on  which  we  stood 
remained  projecting  over  the  rushing  waters,  and  thus  seemingly 
suspended  between  death  and  life.  Here  we  remained  for  nearly 
three  hours,  watching  the  waters  carrying  building  after  building 
to  destruction,  shivering  in  the  cold,  drenched  with  rain,  and  in 
the  most  fearful  suspense.     In  the  meantime  we  had  noticed  per- 


352  REFUGEES  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL. 

sons  climbing  over  house-tops  and  debris  to  the  High  School 
building,  about  a  block  away  from  our  house,  and  which  still 
towered  aloft  apparently  uninjured,  the  only  edifice  in  our  imme- 
diate neiofhborhood  which  stood  on  its  foundation.  All  others  had 
been  swept  away,  leaving  in  their  place  a  tangled  mass  of  timber, 
broken  planks,  roofs  and  other  debris.  I  dreaded  remaining  dur- 
ing the  approaching  night  in  our  precarious  situation,  and  before 
dark  succeeded  in  getting  my  family  out  of  a  remaining  attic  win- 
dow, and  with  much  difficulty  and  peril  succeeded  in  climbing- 
over  this  debris,  over  water  at  least  twenty-five  feet  deep,  to  the 
window  of  the  school-house,  into  which  we  were  helped.  Thai 
night  we  spent  with  nearly  two  hundred  others  in  the  school-house, 
the  scene  of  desolation  around  being  lit  up  by  the  lurid  light  oi 
the  burning  buildings  at  the  stone  bridge  below  and  the  Catholic 
church  above.  About  5  o'clock  the  next  afternoon  we  were  carried 
to  the  Kernville  hill  in  boats. 

"I  purposely  omit,  as  foreign  to  the  purpose  for  which  you 
asked  this  sketch,  any  effort  to  describe  the  tragic  scene  we 
witnessed  from  the  top  of  our  crumbling  house.  I  also  omit  any 
attempt  to  analyze  our  sensations  as  we  stood  there  and  witnessed 
those  scenes,  and  afterward  journeyed  with  uncertain  footsteps 
across  constantly  shifting  and  moving  supports,  over  seething 
waters  to  the  school-house.  .  These,  with  all  that  occurred  in  our 
place  of  refuge  during  this  night  of  calamities,  are  indelibly  im- 
pressed on  our  memories ;  but  who  could  describe  them  so  as  to 
convey  even  a  faint  idea  of  all  we  felt  and  saw  and  suffered  !  " 

Charles  R.  Phipps  writes  :  My  first  intimation  that  the  rise  of 
the  water  was  unusually  high  w^as  on  my  way  to  our  office.  I 
was  informed  that  the  machinery  was  stopped  on  that  account. 
After  going  through  the  city,  often  wading  across  the  streets.  I 
obtained  a  horse  and  rode  to  Kernville  to  view  the  situation  at  the 


MR.  PHIPPS'S  NARRATIVE. 


153 


upper  end  of  the  city.  The  lumber  boom  had  broken  and  was  rac- 
ing down  around  the  bend  of  the  river.  With  everal  other 
horsemen  I  galloped  down  the  street  through  two  feet  of  water  to 
get  across  the  bridge  before  the  boom  should  strike  it.  As  we 
wheeled  the  corner  to  the  bridge,  the  lumber,  which  had  dragged 
with  it  the  Poplar  Street  bridge,  struck  the  Kernville  bridge,  thus 
stopping  us  until  we  discovered  that  it  was  not  carried  away.  We 
then  crossed  and  rode  into  town.  At  noon  we  dined  as  usual  with- 
out apprehending  any  further  rise  of  the  rivers  or  any  disaster.  After 
dinner  I  wandered  about  the  city  for  a  half  hour,  and  on  my  return 
helped  to  raise  a  friend's  piano  above  the  floor,  to  be  out  of  harm's 
way.  After  entertaining  myself  in  the  house  I  found  my  dog  in  the 
kitchen,  and  I  made  sport  of  his  being  afraid  of  the  water  in  the 
yard.  This  was  about  4  p.m.  In  a  few  minutes  the  water  began  to 
enter  the  room.  We  started  to  take  up  the  carpets,  but  in  less 
than  half  a  minute  some  one  burst  into  the  room,  exclaiming 
"The  reservoir  has  broken;  get  up  stairs,  quick  !  quick!"  We  did 
not  get  there  too  soon,  for  as  we  rushed  up  the  stairs  the  house  op- 
posite crushed  into  ours,  and  behind  it  was  a  great  wall  of  water 
bearing  on  its  surface,  houses,  trees,  cars  and  almost  every  other 
imaginable  object.  From  the  second  floor  we  saw  a  three-story 
brick-house  fall  to  the  ground.  Our  house  moved  off  with  the  cur- 
rent, and,  as  it  went,  the  two  walls  of  the  room  we  were  in  fell. 
I  jumped  for  the  window  of  the  house  next  door  to  ours,  and  from 
there  to  the  roof;  but  as  it  started  off  and  seemed  about  to  roll 
over,  I  sprang  into  the  waters  to  reach  what  was  left  of  ours.  As  I 
got  on  it  the  roof  fell  in,  and  we  crawled  to  a  pile  of  drift  that  was 
whirling  by.  It  lodged  some  hundred  feet  from  the  front  street, 
and  we  got  to  the  floor  of  a  brick-house  which  was  poised  at  an 
angle  of  about  forty-five  degrees.  I  helped  the  others  up  (three 
ladies  and  two  gentlemen).  We  then  discovered  that  an  old  man  had 
been  left  behind.      He  was  kneeling  in  water,  on  the  second  floor 


354  ^^^  BURNING  CHURCH. 

of  a  part  of  the  house,  and  with  clasped  hands  as  in  silent  prayer 
was  looking  toward  the  cross  on  the  Catholic  church.  This  was  the 
venerable  Judge  Easly.  We  managed  to  get  him  safely  to  our  frail 
refuge.  When  on  the  drift  I  saw  the  back  of  the  Merchants' 
Hotel  fall,  and  with  it  many  persons  who  never  rose  above  the 
water.  We  waited,  expecting  each  minute  to  meet  the  same  fate ; 
for  huge  houses,  barns,  cars,  etc,  were  crashing  into  the  few  places 
that  were  left  as  a  refuge  from  the  angry  waters.  On  them  were  lit- 
tle children  clinging  to  each  other,  mothers  with  babes  in  their  arms, 
strong  men  and  fathers,  helpless  but  calmly  awaiting  their  fate.  The 
square  above  us  was  one  raging  torrent,  which  afterward  calmed 
and  glided  noiselessly  by  where  a  few  moments  before  were  hun- 
dreds of  happy  homes.  The  silence  of  this  river  of  death  was 
interrupted  by  the  occasional  cry  of  a  poor  human  being  who  was 
being  carried  on  its  bosom  down  to  the  flames  a  few  squares  below. 
About  8  o'clock  the  Catholic  church,  a  square  and  a  half  away, 
between  which  and  our  little  place  of  refuge  this  vast  body  of 
water  glided,  caught  fire.  This  helped  to  warm  us,  but  its  fierce 
flames  were  driving  out  those  who  had  taken  refuge  within  its 
walls  and  on  the  surrounding  houses.  About  lo  o'clock  the  great 
steeple,  after  supporting  a  vast  flame  that  shot  high  in  the  air,  fell, 
and  the  fine  building  was  totally  in  ruins.  This  and  the  whole  square 
that  was  burned,  and  the  greater  and  more  horrible  fire  at  the 
stone  bridge,  added  a  horror  to  the  night  never  to  be  forgotten — 
one  that  under  other  circumstances  would  have  been  called  grand. 
We  manaoed  to  or-et  hold  of  some  floatino-  canvas  and  made  a  little 
tent,  under  which  we  (about  fifteen  in  all)  managed  to  get,  and  hud- 
dled close  together  to  keep  off  some  of  the  rain  that  continually 
poured  down.  My  dog  had  followed  us  through  it  all,  and  as 
several  of  us  had  no  shoes  on,  we  made  him  lie  on  our  feet  to  keep 
them  warm.  Several  persons  were  pulled  from  the  debris  beneath 
our  place  of  refuge,  and  were  taken  under  our  extemporized  tent. 


MR.  MA  YHE  W  S  EXPERIENCE.  355 

After  sixteen  long  hours  in  this  condition  we  managed  to  rig  up 
a  raft  and  poled  ourselves  to  Jackson  Street,  where  we  once  more 
touched  dry  land,  and  for  the  first  time  felt  ourselves  compara- 
tively safe  ;  but  we  were  only  to  witness  the  more  horrible  sight  of 
seeing  dead  bodies  by  the  hundred  for  the  next  month. 

For  fourteen  years  prior  to  the  disaster  of  May  31st,  Mr. 
Edward  Mayhew  and  his  family  lived  happily  in  Woodvale,  their 
home  being  on  Maple  Avenue,  a  short  distance  above  the  tannery. 
At  the  time  of  the  flood  the  household  consisted  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Mayhew  and  seven  children.  When  the  rush  of  water  came  all 
the  members  of  the  family  gathered  in  an  up-stairs  room. 

As  soon  as  the  flood  came  against  the  house,  the  structure 
began  to  go  to  pieces.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mayhew  and  one  of  the 
children — Edward,  aged  14  years — climbed  out  of  a  window 
on  the  roof  of  the  porch.  Before  Mr.  Mayhew  had  time  to  get 
his  other  children  out,  the  house  had  been  smashed  in  and  swept 
away  with  them  in  it,  and  he  and  his  wife  and  his  son  were  borne 
on  the  deluge  down  the  valley. 

At  the  Gautier  Works  the  current  turned  them  southward, 
and  they  were  swept  across  Conemaugh  Borough  and  out  Jackson 
Street  past  St.  John's  Catholic  church  to  the  Stony  Creek,  where 
they  succeeded  in  getting  into  a  house  through  a  window.  Later 
they  made  their  way  across  the  debris  to  John  Thomas'  building, 
where  they  remained  until  9  o'clock  Saturday  morning. 

The  children  who  were  swept  away  in  Mr.  Mayhew's  house 
were  all  lost.  One  of  them — Joseph,  aged  16  years — was  found 
a  week  after  the  flood  and  taken  to  the  Fourth  Ward  morgue. 
James,  aged  22  months,  was  also  found  shortly  after  the  flood. 

The  other  four  were  all  interred  on  Prospect,  but  it  was  only 
recently  that  Mr.  Mayhew  knew  that  their  bodies  had  been  re- 
covered and  where  they  were  interred,   these  facts  being  learned 


356  IDENTIFICA  TIONS. 

by  him  upon  a  visit  to  the  rooms  of  the  Committee  on  Valuables. 
There  he  found  two  rings  belonging  to  Jennie — his  eldest 
daughter,  aged  18 — and  a  medal,  some  pictures,  and  an  Agnus 
Dei  belonging  to  Annie,  his  second  eldest  daughter,  aged  12 
years.  After  receiving  the  articles  from  the  Committee  on 
Valuables  Mr.  Mayhew  had  the  graves  on  Prospect  opened,  and 
he  fully  identified  the  remains  of  his  children. 

Mr.  John  Brady  was  a  stationer,  his  store  being  on  the  corner 
of  Franklin  and  Locust  Streets.  His  son  Tom  is  bookkeeper  for 
the  Daily  Democrat,  from  which  we  extract  this  account  of  the 
death  of  Mr.  Brady  and  the  thrilling  escape  of  his  family:  "Tom, 
with  his  father,  mother,  three  brothers  and  three  sisters,  was  in  the 
second  story  of  the  house — the  dwelling  and  store  were  one  build- 
ing, built  of  brick — when  the  flood  broke  over  the  city.  Three  or 
four  freight  cars  came  along  and  struck  the  house,  demolishing  the 
entire  Locust  Street  side.  At  the  same  time  the  wall  separating 
the  bed-room  from  the  stairs  and  the  wall  running  the  entire  length 
of  the  hall  tumbled  in,  covering  every  one  in  the  room  with  a  mass 
of  rubbish.  Now  comes  the  miraculous  part.  The  floor,  having 
nothing  to  retard  it,  commenced  to  float.  It  went  slowly  along 
with  its  load  of  living  freight  until  it  lodged  against  the  debris  at  the 
Sixth  Ward  school-house,  where  Tom  succeeded  in  getting  his  head 
above  the  timbers.  Between  the  school-house  and  where  the  frail 
craft  stopped  was  a  solid  mass  of  heavy  timbers,  frame-houses  and 
wreckage  of  all  kinds.  Tom  succeeded  in  getting  his  mother, 
brothers  and  sisters  on  the  debris ;  but  the  father,  who  had  been  an 
invalid  for  some  time,  was  drowned.  Then  the  task  of  getting 
into  the  school-house  commenced.  Clambering  on  the  roofs  of 
houses  that  crushed  against  each  other  and  went  to  pieces  like  so 
much  paper,  the  brave  party  at  last  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  haven    of  safety.     The   mother  and    daughters    were    pulled 


A  BRAVE  PARTY. 


35: 


into  the  building  by  means  of  a  long  pole  held  at  each  end  by  the 
boys,  then  the  others  followed  as  best  they  could.  They  remained 
in  the  school-house,  in  company  with  some  forty-three  others, 
until  Saturday  noon,  when  the  waters  had  abated  sufficiently  to  allow 
them  to  ofo  out. 

"Mrs,  Brady,  who  sustained  severe  injuries,  was  removed  to 
Mercy  Hospital,  Pittsburgh,  where  she  was  taken  with  pneumonia, 
and  died  on  June  6th.  Her  remains  were  brought  here  and  laid 
to  rest  by  the  side  of  her  husband,  whose  body  was  recovered  two 
days  afterward,  in  Lower  Yoder  Cemetery." 

Miss  J.  Louise  Mueller  writes:  It  is  about  thirty-eight  years 
since  grandpa  purchased  the  old  home  which  we  occupied.  Never  in 
all  that  time,  I  am  told,  did  the  high  waters  come  near  it,  until  the 
June  flood  of  'Z']  rushed  into  our  cellar,  almost  filling  it.  But  on 
that  never-to-be-forgotten  May  day,  1889,  when  cellar  and  grounds 
had  been  filled,  and  the  waters,  still  rising,  covered  the  piazzas,  then, 
about  11.30  A.M.,  came  over  the  floors,  it  became  evident  that 
the  waters  were  really  in  our  home.  By  3  p.m.  they  had  at- 
tained the  height  of  the  length  of  the  piano-legs.  From  then  until 
about  3.45  they  remained  stationary.  About  4  p.m.  the  warning 
whistle  was  blown,  and  for  a  moment  we  were  startled,  wondering 
what  it  could  mean,  when  brother  laughingly  dismissed  the  subject 
by  conjecturing  it  was  an  alarm  of  fire  in  the  midst  of  all  that 
water.  Then,  thinking  it  about  time  to  look  again  after  things  on 
the  first  floor,  he  descended,  I  following  him  down  the  dining-room 
stairway  within  three  steps  of  the  bottom.  Desiring  to  keep  the 
body  of  the  piano  dry,  he  made  his  way  to  the  rear  end  of  the 
house  to  procure  chairs  on  which  it  might  be  elevated.  No  sooner 
had  he  disappeared  through  the  hallway  than  I  perceived  the 
water  rapidly  covering  the  top  of  the  dining-table,  on  which  the 
contents  of  the  book-case  were   piled ;  and,  looking  toward  the 


o:) 


8  A    VIVID  PICTURE. 


sideboard  to  prove — what  I  wished  to  make  myself  beheve — that 
it  was  a  defect  of  vision,  I  saw  there  also  it  was  rising.  Then,  too, 
the  door,  through  which  brother  had  disappeared,  closed.  Fear- 
ing he  might  not  soon  perceive  the  rising  of  the  water,  I  called 
loudly,  but  could  not  be  heard.  A  great  fear  was  beginning  to 
steal  over  me ;  but,  hoping  still  to  convince  myself  that  I  did  not 
see  aright,  or  that  a  certain  something  was  causing  a  rise  in  but 
that  one  room,  I  sped  up  the  stairway,  through  the  house,  into  the 
front  hall,  and  down  that  stairway,  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  piano 
and  ascertain  the  height  of  the  water  on  it.  But  oh  !  it  was  fast 
being  covered.  I  could  no  longer  doubt  the  floods  were  swelling. 
Remembering  where  brother  was,  and  that  he  could  not  escape 
up  the  kitchen  stairway  because  it  was  packed  with  household 
goods,  I  reached  the  middle  stairway  again,  like  a  flash,  as  I  had 
come,  and,  calling  frantically,  was  answered:  "Yes,  yes;  I  am 
coming.  Do  not  get  so  excited."  It  required  a  big  effort  to  get 
the  door  open,  when  an  expression  of  much  surprise  broke  from 
his  lips ;  and,  hastily  handing  me  a  few  books,  thinking  to  save 
some,  he  noticed  the  piano  through  the  archway,  and  decided  to 
save  that  if  possible  ;  while  I,  filled  with  wonder  as  to  where  so 
much  water  was  coming  from,  rushed  to  the  front  upper  windows 
facing  north,  and,  as  I  neared  them,  I  saw  on  opposite  houses  that 
the  waters  were  fast  covering  the  first-floor  windows.  Thrusting 
my  head  through  an  open  window,  and  looking  north-easterly, 
from  which  direction  seemed  to  be  coming  an  awful  something,  I 
saw  what  filled  me  with  indescribable  horror.  A  mountain  of  dark- 
ness from  the  very  heavens  down  was  -pushing  over  on  us,  bringing 
houses  and  trees — a  great  mass  of  everything.  The  atmosphere 
was  filled  with  spray,  clouds  of  dust,  flying  particles  of  all  kinds. 
My  first  impression  was  that  the  heavy  clouds  had  broken  down 
at  that  end  of  the  heavens,  and  that  the  whole  mass  was  gradually 
lowering.     Then  I  wondered  if  it  could   be  a  cyclone,  or  of  the 


IN  THE  CRASH. 


359 


nature  of  one,  since  there  was  such  a  strong  breeze.  Or,  did  it 
eome  directly  from  the  Almighty's  hand  ?  "  Anyway,"  I  thought, 
"  it  is  most  evidently  death-dealing,  and  this  is  Johnstown's  last 
day,"  All  this,  from  the  blowing  of  the  whistle  up  to  that  moment, 
had  occupied  but  a  few  minutes. 

Quickly  returning,  I  found  brother  flying  up  one  of  the  stair- 
ways, the  waters  following  close.  Calling  to  mamma,  who  had 
lain  down  to  rest,  to  come  and  see  the  awful  something  that  was 
coming  upon  us,  I  drew  brother  to  the  window  and  wanted  to 
know  if  he  had  any  idea  what  it  was.  He  had  none.  We  never 
for  a  moment  thought  of  Conemaugh  Lake  ;  and,  if  we  had,  I  pre- 
sume we  would  not  have  decided  that  was  it ;  for  this  dark,  cloud- 
like mass,  bearing  down  upon  us  with  everything  before  it,  had 
not  yet  dissolved  itself  into  anything,  so  far  as  we  could  see.  The 
fast  rising  of  the  waters  I  attributed  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
accumulating  because  of  the  pressure  of  this  immense  body  of 
something. 

For  an  instant  we  stood,  then  hurried  out  to  the  side  upper 
piazza  overlooking  the  lawn  and  orchard.  Mamma  then  joined 
us,  and  for  several  seconds  we  stood  looking  upon  the  moving 
mass  before  us.  A  good  part  of  our  city,  in  wreck  and  ruin,  was 
sweeping  out  Market  Street  toward  the  Stony  Creek,  almost  imme- 
diately in  front  of  us.  Directly  everything  about  us  began  to 
move  but  our  own  home.  The  building  opposite  crushed  into  our 
front  piazza ;  the  home  across  our  yard,  perhaps  fifty  feet  away, 
turned  on  its  side  and  moved  off;  our  staunch  old  trees  began  to 
bend  and  sway  like  so  many  twigs.  The  crashing  and  creaking  of 
the  falling  homes  ;  the  crunching  of  the  moving  particles  driven  by 
this  black  cloud ;  the  dark  waters  about  our  feet ;  our  own  sensa- 
tions as  if  all  things,  even  old  earth  herself,  moving  off,  getting 
away  from  us  ;  the  fact  before  us  that  this — we  could  not  tell 
what — would  probably  overwhelm  us  at  any  moment — these  hor- 


3 60  AT  REST  A GA IN. 

rors  can  never  be  forgotten.  We  wondered  where  all  the  people 
were,  there  were  so  few  to  be  seen  just  then.  We  wondered,  too, 
how  long  our  strongly-built  old  home  would  withstand  the  power 
of  that  awful  force. 

Suddenly  the  floods  seemed  to  receive  a  mighty  impetus,  and 
we  found  we  must  flee.  It  occurrinor  to  us  that  there  mig^ht  be 
safety  upon  the  roof,  away  we  sped  to  the  attic,  mamma  having 
the  presence  of  mind  first  to  get  the  cage  containing  our  lovely 
canary,  "  Little  Fritz,"  and  throw  a  covering  over  him.  Into  the 
attic  we  then  went,  and  shortly  found  the  skylight  and  got  through 
it  to  the  roof.  By  this  time  the  dark  mass  of  cloud  had  disap- 
peared. A  great  body  of  water  was  rushing  madly  about,  tearing 
westward  on  the  north  side  of  us,  and  rushing  eastward  on  the 
south  side,  apparently  a  perfect  whirlpool,  and  carrying  wreckage 
with  it  to  which  the  people  were  clinging;  while  we  seemed  to  be 
stationary  in  the  midst  of  those  waters.  Composing  ourselves 
enough  to  find  out  where  we  were,  we  discovered  that  our  home 
had  faced  about  and  floated  diagonally  across  the  square  while  we 
were  getting  up  on  the  roof,  and  had  quietly  settled  itself  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Market  Street  school-house,  and  that  we  were  in 
a  big  jam,  none  of  the  surrounding  wreckage,  however,  having 
struck  us  hard,  and  that  little  more  than  our  roof  was  above  water. 

By  this  time  people  were  springing  up  from  everywhere  out 
of  the  wreck,  and  many  sought  safety  on  our  roof.  Some  were 
present  from  the  extreme  end  of  Johnstown  proper.  The  rain 
began  descending  in  torrents,  the  dark  overhead  seeming  deter- 
mined to  wash  us  away  too.  And  directly  the  easterly  current 
which  had  swept  up  the  Stony  Creek  came  dashing  down,  taking 
with  it  portions  of  the  wreckage  in  the  jam,  and  it  seemed  to  us 
we  would  surely  be  carried  down  to  the  stone  bridge.  But  we 
were  permitted  to  remain,  and  were  thankful  to  God  for  His  care 
of  us.     It  was  perfectly  awful  to  see  the  people  sweeping  by  oi 


THE  NIGHT  OF  AGONY.  3 6  I 

portions  of  their  homes  and  fragments  of  all  kinds,  and  with  scarcely 
a  hope  of  escape,  entirely  unable  to  steer  their  crafts  to  safety. 
We  would  look  upon  them,  and  scarcely  ejaculate  a  sound,  but  just 
stare.  All  within  our  reach  were  aided,  of  course.  Much  aid  was 
rendered  rather  mechanically.  We  did  not  have  enough  sense 
at  times  to  greet  our  friends,  but  sat  stupefied  and  stunned,  star- 
ing at  each  other,  each  wondering  how  the  other  got  there,  but 
neither  opening  the  mouth  to  question. 

The  rain  poured  down  almost  incessantly  :  all  were  suffer- 
ing, though  every  contrivance  to  relieve  the  suffering  was  effected. 
After  a  time,  the  waters  began  to  subside :  many  persons  made 
their  way  into  the  attic  of  the  school-house  and  rested,  perhaps,  on 
the  joists  all  night.  Brother  returned  to  our  attic  at  dusk,  and, 
finding  it  dry,  we  descended,  taking  with  us  all  who  would  go : 
so  we  spent  the  night  there.  The  water  had  not  touched  it,  so  the 
three  feather-beds  in  it  were  dry,  and  we  proceeded  to  make  our- 
selves as  comfortable  as  circumstances  would  permit.  The  fear 
that  our  home  might  settle  and  go  to  pieces  during  the  night  was 
not  verified.  As  we  found  later,  it  had  not  been  in  the  way  of  any 
of  the  dreadful  currents,  so  remained  intact  and  was  set  upon  the 
solid  ground. 

By  morning  the  water-currents  were  confined  to  their  chan- 
nels again,  though  great  pools  were  visible  everywhere.  Then, 
too,  heads  were  seen  protruding  from  openings  of  all  sorts,  and 
the  ruin  and  desolation  and  death  were  viewed  and  numerous 
inquiries  for  everybody  made ;  and  much  we  wondered  where  our 
breakfasts  were  coming  from,  and  when  we  would  have  homes 
again.     The  thought  of  receiving  outside  aid  never  came  to  us. 

In  the  morning  mamma,  Henry,  "Fritz"  and  I  left  the  mud- 
soaked  house,  and,  following  a  guide  through  that  wilderness  of 
wrecked  homes,  directly  came  upon  the  remains  of  two  little  chil- 
dren, side  by  side  ;  and  coming  out  on  Main  Street,  just  above  our 


362  A  CHILD'S  QUESTION. 

church,  near  Alma  Hall,  we  started  for  the  hills.  We  were  so 
rejoiced  to  see  the  dear  old  church  building  there.  Farther  up 
the  street,  when  making  rny  way  over  the  great  piles  of  rubbish 
and  buildings  with  much  difficulty,  "Fritz,"  which  I  was  carrying 
in  uncovered  cage,  suddenly  took  it  into  his  pretty  head  to  cheer 
us  up,  so  burst  into  the  sweetest  melody  he  knows ;  and  for  nearly 
four  months  since  that  day  he  continued  almost  incessantly  his 
daily  thanksgiving  lays.  But  he  seriously  objects  to  being  obliged 
to  remain  in-doors,  so  I  presume  his  renditions  will  be  discon- 
tinued until  he  is  permitted  to  enjoy  the  out-door  sunlight  again. 
Still  we  are  most  glad  to  have  this  live  flood-relic,  and  he  certainly 
testified  his  gladness  at  having  escaped  the  general  fate  of  his 
kind  by  the  sweet  outburst  on  Main  Street  that  morning  after  the 
flood. 

We  made  our  way  to  the  hill,  where  a  family  took  us  in  for  a 
few  days,  when  Mr.  Wm.  Thompson,  of  Morrellville,  found  us  and 
took  us  to  his  home,  he  and  his  wife  making  us  most  welcome,  and 
declaring-  that  was  our  home  until  we  should  have  another.     We 

o 

were  there  until  the  ist  of  October,  entirely  rent-free,  and  shown 
every  kindness. 

Mrs.  Mary  Hamilton,  of  Lincoln  and  Cherry  Streets,  and  five 
children,  the  eldest  12  y^ars,  were  washed  down  to  the  stone 
bridge,  the  house  resting  on  its  end,  the  family  clinging  to  the 
window-sills.  Willie  said :  "  Mamma,  where  is  that  God  that 
Dr.  Beale  and  Mr.  Moore  talk  so  much  about,  and  said  that  He 
promised  to  save  us  ?  "  A  large  planing-mill,  belonging  to  Mr. 
Wesley  Rose,  had  swept  them  down  the  stream,  and  now  swept 
them  back  again  to  Napoleon  Street,  where  they  were  rescued  at 
Mr.  Cunningham's,  with  forty-one  other  persons.  In  the  journey 
she  thinks  she  saw  fifty  or  sixty  persons  sink  underneath  the  waves. 
She  saw  some  one  throw  an  old  coat  to  Mr.  John  Henderson,  with 


VARIOUS  OBSERVATIONS.  365 

which  he  covered  his  Httle  boys,  who  were  almost  naked.  Mr. 
Harry  Hamilton  (Mrs.  Hamilton's  husband)  was  in  the  private 
residence  of  Mr,  Job  Morgan,  and  was  rescued  while  floating 
down  to  the  stone  bridge.  He  was  badly  injured,  and  separated 
from  the  family  for  three  weeks,  and  is  still  under  the  physician's 
care.  Mrs.  Hamilton  saw  Henry  Pritchard's  house  capsized,  and 
the  family  crying  for  help  as  they  went  down  to  a  watery  grave. 

Mr,  and  Mrs.  Helsel  and  five  children  were  swept  over  the 
stone  bridge,  and  one  boy  (George),  17  years  of  age,  was  drowned 
in  the  passage, 

Mrs.  Jones,  her  four  children,  and  Mrs.  Phillips,  a  widow  with 
five  children,  were  rescued  at  Colonel  Campbell's.  These  ladies 
are  sisters. 

Mr.  Harry  Campbell  was  on  Conemaugh  Street,  and  saw  the 
Cambria  Library  washed  away  and  many  of  the  Woodvale  people 
drown.  He  also  beheld  McConaughy's  brick  row  and  the  two 
bridges  washed  away.  In  the  morning,  before  the  dam  burst,  he 
built  a  raft,  and  with  another  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Lloyd  suc- 
ceeded in  moving  fifty  or  sixty  from  their  own  houses  to  higher 
places  on  the  hills.  These  persons  were  afterward  lost,  as  men- 
tioned in  a  previous  account, 

Mrs,  Ellen  Hite,  of  Kernville,  on  the  south  side,  was  caught 
on  the  street  and  drowned  while  trying  to  climb  an  electric-light 
pole  at  the  corner  of  Morris  and  Dibert  Streets.  Her  screams 
were  terrible. 

Among  the  households  on  Vine  Street  none  were  more  happy 
than  that  of  Mr.  John  White,  an  aged  man  ;  the  wife  of  his  youth 
20 


366  BRAVE   WOMEN. 

and  his  children  were  still  around  him.  They  were  ail  at  home  that 
day  when  the  torrent  came  crushing  their  fine  residence  to  pieces. 
Mr.  White  took  his  wife  in  his  arms,  but  she  was  drowned  despite  all 
his  efforts  to  save  her.  Besides  the  death  of  this  estimable  woman,  the 
following  members  of  the  family  perished  :  Maggie,  Ella,  Mina, 
Raymond,  and  Mrs.  Jessie  White  Delaney.  Lemuel  Delaney,  his 
son  Jay,  and  sister-in-law,  Miss  Ida  White,  were  carried  to  the 
stone  bridge,  while  the  father  of  fourscore  years  was  drifted  to  the 
residence  of  Fred  Krebs,  in  Kernville,  whence,  by  the  first  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  train,  he  was  conveyed  to  the  town  of  Somerset. 

Mrs.  Hettie  M.  Ogle  and  Miss  Minnie,  her  daughter,  with 
four  other  young  ladies.  Master  Willie  Gaither  and  line  repairer 
Jackson  were  imprisoned  in  the  Western  Union  telegraph  office 
by  the  deep  water  before  the  furious  torrent  struck  them.  Mrs. 
Ogle's  son  telephoned  her  until  she  was  driven  above  stairs.  The 
telegraph  line  had  been  destroyed  before  the  torrent  came.  Mr. 
Charles  Og^le  is  satisfied  that  his  mother  and  those  with  her  knew 
nothing  of  the  supreme  danger  until  they  saw  the  approach  of 
the  avalanche.  They  were  all  lost  in  the  flood.  The  ladies  not 
mentioned  above  were  Misses  Mary  Walters,  Minnie  Linton, 
Grace  Garman  and  Jane  Kush. 

Rev.  F.  B.  Cunz,  a  Lutheran  clergyman  and  professor  of  Ger- 
man in  our  High  School,  was  driven  with  his  family,  consisting  of 
his  wife  and  five  children,  to  the  upper  story  of  his  house  on  Napo- 
leon Street,  The  house  was  dashed  to  pieces,  and  instantly  Mrs. 
Cunz  and  four  of  the  little  children  were  drowned. 

The  part  of  the  building  to  which  Mr.  Cunz  and  his  son  Her- 
man still  clung  impinged  against  the  residence  of  Rev.  Horace 
Goodchild,  the  Baptist  pastor,  who,  with  his  wife,  was  sitting  on 
the  parsonage  roof.     Here  Mr.  Cunz  and  his  son  were  rescued. 


A  L  MOS  T  CRAZ  Y.  367 

Mr.  Morrell  Swank  tells  of  the  thrilling  and  terrible  experi- 
ence of  himself  and  family  on  that  ever-memorable  Friday  even- 
ing, as  follows  :  "When  the  great  flood  struck  my  residence  at  No. 
312  Main  Street  I  was  on  the  second  floor  with  my  wife  and  two 
children  and  servant  girl.  My  house  was  crushed  like  an  egg- 
shell right  over  our  heads.  My  little  son  Roy  was  crushed  to 
death  in  my  arms.  Just  when  I  thought  my  last  moment  had  come, 
the  water  raised  the  house  and  pushed  us  upward  through  the 
ceiling.  In  a  few  moments  we  were  carried  down  a  considerable 
distance  below  the  Kernville  bridge.  My  wife  and  I  were  only 
about  four  feet  from  each  other,  and  she  had  the  baby  in  her  arms. 
I  succeeded  in  getting  loose,  and  took  the  baby  from  my  wife  and 
put  it  on  a  house-roof  that  was  floating  alongside  of  us.  I  then 
reached  over  to  help  my  wife  bn  the  roof.  Just  then  the  water 
commenced  to  back  up  from  the  stone  bridge,  and  I  was  whirled 
around  out  of  reach  of  my  wife,  who  drifted  away,  and  she  was 
drowned  right  before  my  eyes.  Imagine  my  feelings  when  float- 
ing on  the  water  about  fifty  feet  deep,  and  houses  crushing  all 
around  me  loaded  with  human  freight,  the  city  all  under  water,  the 
Catholic  church  burning,  and  the  rain  coming  down  in  torrents. 
The  baby  and  I  were  finally  rescued  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  up 
the  Stony  Creek.  My  servant  girl,  wife,  son,  parents,  one  brother 
and  a  sister  were  drowned,  and  only  three  of  their  bodies  have 
been  recovered." 

The  following  letter  was  written  by  Mr.  George  Barbour  to 
a  relative  in  Chambersburg,  Pa.  :  "My  mother,  my  wife  and  three 
children  were  all  drowned.  I  have  been  almost  crazy.  I  even 
did  not  think  of  writing  to  any  of  my  friends.  For  a  week  I  was 
kept  busy  trying  to  find  their  bodies.  I  had  to  climb  the  hills  to 
get  from  one  morgue  to  the  other,  and  had  no  one  to  help  me. 
Most  of  the  time  I  had  only  one  meal  a  day,  and  became  so  weak 


368  NOT  A  HOUSE  LEFT. 

and  sick  that  I  had  to  stop.  I  found  my  dear  wife  and  dear  Httle 
girl,  I  had  to  carry  the  coffins  over  a  mile  to  where  the  bodies 
were.  As  the  bridges  were  all  washed  away  I  had  to  get  a  wagon 
and  drive  about  four  miles  over  the  hills  to  the  cemetery,  and  it  was 
8  o'clock  in  the  evening  when  I  got  there, 

"It  was  the  hardest  thing  ever  any  man  did,  to  put  his  own 
dear  wife  and  child  in  a  coffin  and  bury  them  himself;  but  it  was 
the  only  thing  I  could  do,  and  hundreds  of  others  had  to  do  the 
same. 

"  I  could  not  find  my  poor  dear  mother  and  two  little  boys. 
One  was  about  7  years  old  and  the  other  was  our  baby,  about 
3  months  old.  It  was  so  nice,  and  everybody  said  it  was  the 
brightest  and  prettiest  baby  they  had  ever  seen.  Oh,  if  I  had  only 
stayed  at  home  with  them  !  I  had  taken  them  up  to  my  sister-in- 
law's  and  told  them  to  stay  until  I  came  back.  I  went  to  town  and 
stayed  longer  than  I  intended  to.  It  got  clear  and  stopped  raining, 
and  they  went  back  down  town  to  our  home,  but  could  not  get  out 
any  more. 

"  I  was  on  my  way  home  when  the  dam  broke.  I  tried  to 
reach  the  bridge,  but  when  I  was  about  a  hundred  yards  from  it,  it 
gave  way.  I  ran  up  the  hill  and  saw  my  house  and  all  the  rest  of 
the  houses  in  our  part  of  the  town  (Woodvale)  move  off.  The 
roofs  were  filled  with  men,  women  and  children,  but  they  could  do 
nothing.  It  didn't  leave  a  house  in  Woodvale,  I  cannot  describe 
it  with  a  pen,  but  must  try  to  tell  you  all.  My  cousin,  Will  Beck, 
was  drowned,  with  his  wife,  two  dear  little  boys,  his  mother-in-law 
and  her  niece.  My  mother-in-law,  Mrs.  Baker,  was  drowned, 
and  also  her  1 7-year-old  daughter.  James  Baker,  with  his  wife 
and  child,  and  Edward  Baker,  his  wife  and  two  children,  were 
all  drowned.  The  Bakers  were  brothers  to  my  wife,  Edward 
Eldridge,  my  sister's  husband,  lost  his  mother  and  three  brothers, 

"I  believe  that  completes  the  list  of  my  relatives  who  were 


STILL  AS  DBA  TIL  369 

drowned.  I  still  have  my  two  brothers,  Thomas  and  James  ;  they 
and  their  families  were  saved.  My  cousin,  Andy  Beck,  was  also 
saved.  They  are  all  I  have  left.  He  was  washed  out  and  lost  all 
he  had.  He  has  six  children,  and  got  them  all  out  just  in  time.  My 
brother  Thomas  hadn't  time  even  to  put  on  his  coat." 

C.  C.  Ramsey,  who  resided  at  69  Main  Street,  says:  "I  arose  at 
the  usual  hour,  and  found  the  waters  rising-  very  rapidly — so  fast, 
in  fact,  that  the  water  covered  the  first  tioor  before  we  had  time  to 
remove  carpets  and  furniture  to  the  upper  floors,  at  the  same  time 
forcing  the  entire  family  to  the  second  floor.  At  the  hour  of  10 
A.M.  we  were  surrounded  by  at  least  ten  feet  of  water,  which  closed 
all  channels  of  escape  from  that  hour,  as  the  current  which  swept 
through  the  street  was  so  strong  that  any  ordinary  boat  could  make 
no  progress  against  it.  However,  a  boat  was  a  luxury  that  we 
did  not  possess. 

"After  II  A.M.  all  was  quiet  even  to  the  stillness  of  death; 
one  could  hear  the  swash  of  the  waters,  the  voices  of  neighbors,  or 
the  bark  of  a  dog.  We  were  completely  cut  off  from  all  communi- 
cation, therefore,  not  knowing  the  South  Fork  reservoir  had  broken 
until  it  was  upon  us. 

"  The  roar  of  the  mighty  wave  fell  upon  our  ears,  and  with  one 
impulse  we  rushed  to  the  third  floor,  which  we  gained  just  in  time, 
as  at  that  instant  a  string  of  flat  cars,  coupled  together,  struck  the 
house,  demolishing  the  two  lower  floors,  leaving  us  the  mansard, 
which  floated  toward  the  stone  bridge.  During  this  time  we, 
with  great  difficulty,  reached  the  roof,  upon  which  we  remained 
until  we  were  wedged  into  the  debris  between  the  City  Guard 
Armory  and  Lincoln  Avenue,  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the 
Morrell  Institute.  It  is  beyond  description  ;  we  can  hardly  remem- 
ber, only  we  climbed  over  many  houses,  floating  roofs,  piles  of 
debris,   and    finally  the    haven  of  safety  was  reached.      During 


Z70 


FEARFUL  SURPRISES. 


this  time  there  continued  a  cold,  driving  rain  which  chilled  one  to 
the  marrow.  Fortunately  the  good  people  of  the  institute  pro- 
vided us  with  such  protection  as  could  be  had  in  the  shape  of 
comfortables  and  blankets,  which  served  a  double  purpose — protec- 
tion from  rain,  and  hiding  from  view  the  frightful  scenes  which 
were  taking  place  about  us. 

"  Darkness  ensuing,  the  scene  was  made  more  appalling  by 
the  wreckage  taking  fire  at  the  bridge.  Roofs  laden  with  human 
freight  could  be  seen  rushing  into  the  seething  flames  to  be 
roasted  alive. 

"Late  in  the  evening  we  descended  into  the  building,  where 
we  rested  from  the  elements  at  least,  and,  on  the  following 
morning,  with  improvised  rafts  we  reached  terra  firma,  and 
were  correspondingly  happy,  notwithstanding  the  fact  we  were 
without  home  or   food." 

Mary  M.  Butler  resided  before  the  flood  at  1 1 2  Morris  Street, 
Kernville.  She  says:  "Brother  John  had  been  running  all  the 
morning  between  our  house  and  his  sister's,  Mrs.  Long,  who 
resided  on  Vine  Street  in  Johnstown. 

"At  dinner  time  brother  John  said  to  mother,  'You  will  have 
to  get  some  warm  clothes  on  and  get  ready  to  go  up-stairs,  as  the 
water  is  rising  and  may  come  into  the  first  floor.'  Somewhere 
about  4  o'clock  my  sister  happened  to  go  to  the  window,  and  she 
heard  a  man  passing,  saying  that  the  reservoir  was  broken.  Then 
she  said  that  we  must  take  mother  up-stairs.  So  we  at  once 
carried  her  up-stairs  and  put  her  on  the  bed,  which  was  a  roped 
bedstead.  I  had  barely  time  to  rush  down-stairs  to  save  some- 
thing off  the  bed,  which  I  succeeded  in  getting,  that  I  could  res- 
cue from  the  rising  water.  Having  secured  those  things,  sister 
came  down-stairs  and  hurried  me,  grabbing  hold  of  my  hands, 
when   the   rising  waters  pushed  me  up,  and  I  had  barely  time  to 


ESCAPE  BY  A  CHIMNE  Y. 


11^ 


get  on  the  bed,  when,  pushed  by  the  waters,  the  bed  arose,  bearing 
us  with  it  to  within  some  eighteen  inches  of  the  ceiHng. 

'•We  all  stayed  in  that  condition  all  night;  and  although  our 
house  had  been  moved  about  a  square  from  its  foundation,  we  did 
not  discover  that  fact  until  some  time  during  the  night.  During  the 
night  the  chimney,  which  had  been  for  some  time  tottering  and 
threatening  to  fall  upon  us,  eventually  took  a  sudden  start  and 
fell  through  the  lower  floor,  crushing  the  bedstead  on  which 
my  mother  had  lain  ;  and  thus  we  also  escaped  that  danger. 
During  the  night  some  neighbors  called  to  us  and  asked  if  we 
were  all  there  ;  and  then  they  asked  us  if  we  knew  where  we 
were ;  and  not  till  that  time  did  we  know  that  our  house  had  been 
moved  from  its  foundations,  and  was  now  in  the  middle  of  the 
street.  About  4  o'clock  in  the  morning  my  brother  Nathaniel 
found  us,  and  after  getting  on  the  roof  broke  it  in,  and  about  7 
o'clock,  with  the  aid  of  others,  he  succeeded  in  getting  mother 
down  through  the  large  chimney-hole  and  bore  her  to  a  neighbor's 
house  on  Sherman  Street.  My  sister  and  myself  then  succeeded 
in  getting  down  through  the  same  chimney-hole,  and  we  then 
joined  our  mother. 

"My  brother  John  who  had  gone  to  town  was  never  again 
heard  of  by  us,  nor  has  his  body  been  recognized  amongst  the 
many  that  have  been  discovered  and  buried." 

For  several  days  after  the  flood  Mr.  Henry  Viering,  the  well- 
known  furniture  dealer  at  the  corner  of  Railroad  and  Jackson 
Streets,  suffered  great  bodily  pain  from  injuries  received  on  the 
fatal  Friday  ;  but  his  bodily  pain  was  as  nothing  compared  to  his 
mental  agony.  He  lost  in  the  flood  his  whole  family,  consisting 
of  his  wife  and  three  children.  In  an  interview  he  said,  substan- 
tially, as  follows  : 

"I  was  at  home  with  my  wife  and  children  when  the  alarm 


372  DRO  WNED  IN  HIS  GRA SP. 

came.  We  hurried  from  the  house,  leaving  everything  behind  us. 
As  we  reached  the  door,  a  friend  of  mine  was  running  by.  He 
grasped  the  two  smallest  children,  one  under  each  arm,  and  then 
hurried  on  ahead  of  us.  I  had  my  arm  around  my  wife's  waist 
supporting  her.  Behind  us  we  could  hear  the  flood  rushing. 
In  one  hurried  glance  as  I  passed  a  corner  I  could  see  the  fearful 
flood  crunching  and  crackling  the  houses  in  its  fearful  grasp,  with 
no  possibility  of  escape,  as  we  were  too  far  away  from  the  hill- 
side. In  a  flash  I  saw  my  three  dear  children  licked  up  by  it  and 
disappear  from  sight,  as  I  and  my  wife  were  thrown  in  the  air  by 
the  rushing  ruins.  We  found  ourselves  in  among  a  lot  of  drift, 
driving  along  with  the  speed  of  a  race-horse.  In  a  moment  or 
two  we  were  thrown  with  a  crash  ap-ainst  the  side  of  a  large  frame 
building,  whose  walls  gave  away  as  if  they  were  made  of  paper, 
and  the  timbers  began  to  fall  about  us  in  all  directions.  Up  to 
this  time  I  retained  a  firm  hold  on  my  wife;  but  I  found  myself 
pinned  between  two  heavy  timbers,  the  agony  causing  my  senses 
to  leave  me  momentarily:  I  recovered  instantly,  in  time  to  see  my 
wife's  head  just  disappearing  under  water. 

'•'  Like  lightning  I  grasped  her  by  the  hair,  and  as  best  I  could, 
pinioned  as  I  was  above  the  water  by  the  timber,  I  raised  her  above 
it.  The  weight  proved  too  much,  and  she  sank  again.  Again  I 
pulled  her  to  the  surface,  and  again  she  sank.  This  I  did  again 
and  again  without  avail.  She  drowned  in  that  grasp,  and  at  last 
dropped  from  my  nerveless  hands,  to  leave  my  sight  forever ! 

"As  if  I  had  not  suffered  enough,  a  few  moments  later  I  saw 
white  objects  whirling  around  in  an  eddy  until,  reaching  again  the 
current,  they  floated  past  me.  My  God!  would  you  believe  me? 
It  was  my  children,  all  dead!  Their  dear  little  faces  are  before 
me  now — distorted  in  a  look  of  agony — that,  no  matter  what  I  do, 
haunts  me.  Oh,  if  I  could  only  have  released  myself  at  that  time, 
I  would  have  willingly  gone  with  them  !     I  was  rescued  some  time 


FA  THER  DA  VIN'S  EFFOR TS.  T^'] ^ 

after,  and  have  been  here  ever  since.  I  have  since  learned  that 
my  friend,  who  so  bravely  endeavored  to  save  two  of  the  children, 
was  lost  with  them." 

Rev.  Dr.  Davin,  of  Cambria  City  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
saw  the  Conemaugh  swell  and  overflow  its  banks,  but  this  did  not 
cause  him  to  leave  his  post.  Finally,  the  water  rose  to  the  parlor 
floor,  and  he  began  to  think  something  unusual  had  happened. 
Taking  a  man  with  him,  he  went  to  the  Sisters'  school,  in  water  up 
to  his  waist,  and  carried  the  Sisters,  one  after  another,  to  his  own 
house.  By  the  time  this  task  was  done,  the  great  volume  of  water 
had  reached  Johnstown  and  Cambria  City.  The  rumbling  and 
crushing  of  houses  and  trees  warned  the  inmates  of  the  priest's 
house  to  seek  a  place  more  secure,  as  the  water  was  nearing  the 
second  story  of  his  handsome  house. 

To  the  third  story  the  whole  party  went,  and  there  spent  the 
night  in  frightful  expectation  that  the  worst  would  come  every 
minute.  Several  times  the  house  shook  ;  and  the  shrieks  of  the 
injured  and  dying,  who  were  almost  within  arms'  reach  from  the 
windows,  were  something  terrible.  Father  Davin  then  went  to 
his  second-story  window,  and,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  saved  two 
or  three  persons  from  drowning  by  pulling  them  through  the 
windows. 

The  horrors  of  that  night  preyed  continually  on  Father 
Davin's  mind,  and  broke  his  constitution.  The  next  night,  when 
the  waters  had  subsided,  Father  Davin  sent  all  in  his  house  to  the 
hill  for  safety,  but  remained  himself  His  home  and  church  were 
partly  destroyed,  and  two  feet  of  mud  left  on  the  first  floor.  His 
first  work  after  he  could  get  out  was  to  look  after  the  injured  and 
dead. 

He  turned  the  beautiful  edifice  into  a  morgue.  As  many  as 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  bodies  were  in  it  at  one  time,  and 


374  A  LESSON  LEAF. 

there  was  not  an  hour  of  the  day  or  night  that  Father  Davin  was 
not  consohng  the  friends  of  the  dead.  In  mud  up  to  his  knees  he 
paced  from  altar  to  vestibule  assisting  in  the  removal  of  the  dead. 

During  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  June  ist,  he  walked  down  to 
the  banks  of  the  Conemaugh.  Here  he  found  three  men  robbing 
the  body  of  a  man.  He  ran  and  struck  one  of  the  villains  on  the 
head  with  his  cane,  stunning  him.  The  miscreant  soon  recovered 
and  dealt  Father  Davin  a  terrible  kick  on  the  side  with  a  hob- 
nail shoe,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  never  fully  recovered. 

The  effects  of  the  assault  laid  Father  Davin  up  for  some  time, 
and  until  the  time  he  died  he  complained  of  it.  During  the  excite- 
ment in  Johnstown,  Doctor  Davin's  house  was  thrown  open  to 
every  one,  and  here  many  a  weary  worker  found  a  night's  rest. 
He  was  earnestly  advised  after  the  flood  by  friends  and  doctors 
to  take  a  vacation,  but  he  steadily  refused,  giving  as  a  reason 
that  it  looked  to  him  like  shirking  duty  when  the  wants  of  the  peo- 
ple required  his  presence.  A  short  time  ago,  however,  he  was  pre- 
vailed upon  to  go  to  Denver,  where  he  died.  The  last  words  he 
spoke  on  leaving  were  to  his  sister  Stella : 

"  I  am  afraid  I  did  not  leave  soon  enough." 

A  coat  was  found  in  the  wreckage,  in  a  pocket  of  which  was 
a  Westminster  Lesson  Leaf  with  the  following  conclusions  to  the 
lesson:  "What  have  I  learned?  i.  That  we  cannot  escape  from 
the  power  of  God.  2.  That  we  should  promptly  and  willingly 
obey  His  commands.  3.  That  He  sends  the  winds  and  storms 
to  do  His  bidding,  4.  That  He  is  displeased  with  those  who 
have  the  truth  of  God  and  fail  to  make  it  known." 

One  night  in  the  morgue,  after  we  had  arranged  the  identified 
bodies  at  one  side  of  the  room  and  the  unidentified  at  the  other 
side,  I  assembled  all   the   men  at   i  o'clock   and   offered  prayer. 


A  VA RICE  RUN  MAD.  375 

Here,  in  the  midst  of  eighty-four  bodies,  coffined,  whose  de- 
parted spirits  were  beyond  the  province  of  prayer,  I  felt  that  it 
was  a  time  to  appeal  to  the  living  God  for  strength  and  comfort, 
to  impress  our  own  spirits  with  the  awfulness  and  suddenness  of 
death,  to  be  prepared  for  it  in  whatever  form  it  might  come.  I 
felt  also  that  the  inexpressible  sadness  and  gloom  of  our  work 
could  only  be  relieved  by  Him  who  is  the  resurrection  and  life. 

Among  the  curious  revelations  of  disposition  which  the  flood 
made,  this  one  perhaps  exceeds  all  others.  If  there  has  ever  been 
an  equal  exhibition  of  meanness  within  recorded  history  it  has  es- 
caped our  observation.  During  the  dreadful  night  a  young 
lady  was  rescued  from  the  debris,  where  she  would  have  died  from 
exposure,  and  was  taken  into  the  club-house.  Her  drenched  and 
ruined  clothing  was  removed,  and  she  had  to  attire  herself  in  a 
pair  of  pants  belonging  to  one  of  the  male  guests.  The  party 
who  owned  them  hunted  in  every  place  for  them  and  was  informed 
what  disposition  had  been  made  of  them.  He  demanded  ^8.00  in 
payment,  and  it  is  understood  that  the  young  lady  has  since  sent 
him  that  amount.  We  hope  that  if  he  is  ever  married  his  wife  will 
"  wear  the  pants." 

While  Rev.  Drs.  W.  C.  Cattell  and  Beale  were  walking 
through  the  town  about  a  month  after  the  flood,  they  met  Mrs.  Fenn, 
whose  husband  and  seven  children  were  lost  in  the  flood  on  that 
terrible  afternoon,  none  of  whose  bodies  had  then  been  recovered. 
She  had  been  digging  among  the  ruins  of  her  home,  this  having  been 
her  occupation  every  day  for  nearly  four  weeks.  When  Dr.  Beale 
and  Dr.  Cattell  met  her,  she.had  just  found  a  clock.  It  had  been  a  pet 
clock.  She  was  sitting  there  hugging  the  clock  to  her  breast  as 
if  it  were  one  of  her  babies.  She  is  a  member  of  Dr.  Beale's 
church,  and  was  glad  to  see  him.     She  told  Dr.  Cattell  her  story. 


376  MRS.  FENiV'S  CLOCK. 

She  related  her  experience  on  that  dreadful  day  in  a  simple,  straight- 
forward way  and  without  a  tear.  She  passed  the  clock  over  to  Dr. 
Beale,  and  asked  him  to  keep  it  for  her.  Dr.  Cattell  proposed  that 
he  should  take  it  to  Philadelphia  and  have  it  cleaned  and  placed  in 
good  condition  again,  promising  to  return  it  as  soon  as  Mrs.  Fenn 
was  ready  to  receive  it.  He  had  hardly  finished  his  proposition 
when  the  poor  woman's  face  was  bathed  in  tears:  she  had  been 
able  to  tell  the  story  of  her  dreadful  sorrow  with  dry  eyes,  but  one 
kind  act  from  a  stranger  touched  the  well-spring  of  her  heart,  and 
made  the  tears  course  down  her  cheeks.  Throusfh  the  tender 
ministrations  of  Mrs.  Beale  and  other  ladies,  this  afflicted  soul  has 
been  restored  to  the  rig-ht  use  of  her  mind. 

This  clock  was  repaired  and  taken  back  on  January  3d  by 
Dr.  Beale  and  presented  to  Mrs.  Fenn. 

The  flood  has  brought  out  a  "dark  horse;"  so  we  give  him  the 
prominence  he  deserves,  and  hand  his  name  down  to  posterity. 

The  evening  of  the  flood  Mr.  N.  B.  Hartzell's  black  horse  was 
in  the  stable,  which  was  near  the  gentleman's  warehouse.  The 
stable  was  washed  away,  and  a  neighbor  of  Mr.  Hartzell  told  him 
he  saw  the  building  lifted  up,  and  the  horse  floating  off  into  the 
debris. 

"I  guess  your  horse  is  lost,"  the  neighbor  remarked,  and  Mr. 
Hartzell  answered  that  he  was  afraid  it  was,  and  to  that  conclu- 
sion he  came  as  Saturday  passed  and  no  trace  of  his  animal  was 
found.  On  Sunday  some  one  said  to  him :  "  Hartzell,  there's  a 
horse  up  in  the  second  story  of  your  warehouse.  "  At  first  he 
could  scarcely  credit  the  statement,  but  upon  investigation  he 
found  that  it  was  true,  and  that  the  horse  was  his  own — the  one  he 
thought  he  had  lost.  When  Mr.  Hartzell  entered  the  apartment 
where  the  horse  was,  it  turned  its  head  about  and  neighed  and 
whinnied  with  evident  pleasure  at  seeing  its  master.     The  horse 


VENERABLE    VICTIMS.  2)77 

had  its  halter  on,  with  the  hitching  strap  attached.  The  fastening 
had  been  pulled  out  of  the  trough.  How  the  animal  was  trans- 
ferred by  the  flood  from  the  stable  to  where  it  was  found  is  a 
mystery  to  Mr.  Hartzell. 

I  insert  this  item  from  the  Johnstown  Tribune,  of  January  7th, 
1890,  as  an  interesting  one  in  the  personal  history  of  the  city: 

Sir  : — I  see  it  stated  in  the  obituary  of  Mrs,  L.  H.  Roberts, 
who  lost  her  life  in  the  flood,  that  she  was  the  first  white  child  born 
in  Johnstown,  the  date  of  her  birth  being  given  as  October  20th, 
1807.  Now,  Mrs.  Catharine  Burkhart,  who  also  lost  her  life  in  the 
flood,  going  from  Mineral  Point,  was  born  in  Johnstown,  April  9th, 
1 804,  near  where  Col.  Linton's  house  stood  before  the  deluge  came. 
When  Mrs.  Burkhart  was  yet  a  baby,  her  father,  Abraham  Hilde- 
brand,  built  and  moved  up  to  where  the  Alma  Hall  now  stands. 
Mr.  Hildebrand  then  owned  a  considerable  portion  of  the  ground 
on  which  Johnstown  is  built.  Mrs.  Burkhart  and  Mrs.  Roberts 
were  playmates  when  children,  were  young  girls  together,  and 
both  could  tell  all  about  the  great  floods  of  long  ago,  little  dreaming 
that  both  would  live  to  see  another  and  a  greater  flood,  in  which 
both  should  perish.  B. 

Miss  Nellie  Secrist  ran  into  Cover's  livery  stable  for  safety. 
She  climbed  into  the  hay-loft,  immediately  over  the  horses'  heads. 
She  says  that  the  groans  and  shrieks  of  the  poor  animals  in  their 
death-struggles  while  drowning  were  fearful. 

This  is  a  pension  which  will  receive  the  indorsement  of  the 
American  people,  from  the  President  down  through  the  rank  and 
file  :  Sarah  J.  Mackin,  a  widow  of  Johnstown  who  lost  all  her  earthly 
possessions  in  the  flood,  has  been  awarded  a  pension  and  back 
pay  amounting  to  ^5,966. 


J/ 


8  STICKING   TO  BUSINESS. 


The  entire  money  subscription  to  the  Mail  and  Express  for 
the  Conemaugh  sufferers  amounted  to  ;^49,o8o.o8.  This  does  not 
indude  many  of  Colonel  Shepard's  personal  gifts,  and  his  other 
kind  attentions  to  individuals  and  classes  of  sufferers.  One  of  the 
most  tender  and  beautiful  of  his  benefactions  was  his  sending  to 
Asbury  Park  twenty-five  ladies,  and  paying  their  expenses  for  a 
month  at  that  delightful  seaside  resort.  Nothing  could  have  been 
more  beneficial,  as  it  afforded  a  resting  place  beside  the  sea,  where, 
in  the  presence  of  its  majesty,  and  with  all  the  care  and  attention 
which  Colonel  Shepard's  purse  could  command,  they  obtained 
relief  which  was  inexpressible. 

On  Main  Street  is  Thomas's  general  store.  It  is  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  desolation.  Three  women  were  carefully  climbing  the 
piles  of  rubbish.  One  had  a  box  under  her  arm.  At  this  store 
workmen  were  wheeling  out  barrow  loads  of  the  dirt  deposited 
over  everything  by  the  flood.  The  woman  with  the  box  stopped 
the  workmen,  found  the  man  in  charge,  and  said : 

"I  purchased  these  shoes  before  the  flood.  They  are  sevens. 
I  want  sixes.     You  made  a  mistake.     I  want  them  exchanged." 

Mrs,  Emma  Robb,  stepmother  of  Mrs.  Overbeck,  another  of 
the  survivors,  lived  at  the  corner  of  Morris  and  Willow  Streets 
south  side.  She  is  a  widow,  and  with  her  only  daughter  she  fled 
to  the  upper  story  of  her  house,  taking  some  provisions  with  her. 
Both  before  and  after  the  great  tidal  wave  struck  the  house,  mother 
and  daughter  worked  heroically  to  save  the  terror-stricken  and 
half-drowned  unfortunates  who  floated  past  their  windows.  They 
succeeded  in  saving  the  lives  of  twenty-six  persons,  and  early  Satur- 
day morning  the  whole  party  were  carried  on  a  raft  to  the  upper 
part  of  Kernville.  This  was  heroism  compared  to  which  Paul 
Revere's  is  tame. 


AN  ODD  INQ  UIR  Y.  379 

Mrs.  Joshua  Carpenter,  of  Johnstown,  was  so  affected  by  the 
fire  in  Seattle  as  to  provide  and  prepare  a  box  of  clothing  for  those 
who  had  been  burned  out.  The  box  was  in  her  attic  ready  to  be 
shipped  on  Saturday,  June  ist.  The  flood  came  on  Friday  after- 
noon. Everything-  in  Mrs.  Carpenter's  house  was  ruined  except 
this  box  of  clothing,  which,  being  in  the  attic,  was  the  only  thing 
that  escaped  the  waters.  It  was  accordingly  unpacked,  and  the 
clothing  was  judiciously  distributed  in  her  family  and  among  her 
neighbors. 

The  dun  mare  of  Mr.  Frank  Benford  was  standing  in  the 
alley  between  the  Hulbert  House  and  Hornick's  Hotel  when  the 
great  wave  struck  the  town.  Persons  on  the  top  of  the  Fritz 
House  saw  it  go  over  her  with  the  jam  of  buildings  it  had  gathered 
in  its  wild  roll.  They  thought  of  course  she  was  killed.  What  sur- 
prise there  was  when  on  Saturday  she  was  found  perched  up  on 
one  of  the  highest  points  of  the  wreckage,  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance from  where  she  had  stood — alive,  but  having  become  blind  in 
the  passage. 

A  farmer  in  Kansas  shortly  after  the  flood  wrote  to  the 
Bureau  of  Information  asking  it  to  obtain  a  wife  for  him  among 
those  ladies  who  had  survived  it.  He  stated  his  age  at  35,  and 
wanted  a  wife  of  about  y^.  He  owned  a  successful  stock  farm. 
The  officers  of  the  Bureau  said  that  they  had  received  many  in- 
quiries for  relics,  but  this  was  the  only  one  for  a  living  relic,  and  she 
to  becorne  a  wife.  I  think  that  the  analysis  of  that  young  farmer's 
heart  would  show  it  to  be  healthy  and  full  of  blue  blood.  There 
was  a  nobility  in  this  request.  He  was  willing  to  take  a  woman  who 
had  no  earthly  possession ;  he  wanted  to  provide  a  home  and  life 
comfort  for  one  who  had  been  a  victim  of  the  disaster  ;  he  was  will- 
ing to  trust  total  strangers  to  make  the  selection.    He  must  be  a  man 


380  THOUGHTFULNESS  IN  GIVING. 

of  unbounded  benevolence  and  faith.     Pity  it  is  that  more  such 
men  did  not  appear. 

I  wish  the  name  of  this  New  York  lady  was  generally  known. 
Her  action  displayed  a  woman's  wisdom  and  sympathy.  She  se- 
lected from  her  and  her  husband's  wardrobes  all  the  suits  they 
could  possibly  spare.  Into  the  pockets  of  the  men's  suits  she  put 
a  jack-knife,  a  hair-brush  and  a  comb  ;  into  those  of  the  women's 
gowns,  a  pair  of  stockings,  a  comb,  a  brush,  a  tooth-brush  and  a 
cake  of  soap.  Several  of  the  gowns  she  was  saving  for  her  sum- 
mer's trip.  She  said,  "  I  decided  to  let  the  Johnstown  sufferers 
have  them,  and  my  husband  will  get  me  others." 

Mrs.  S.  W.  F.,  of  Harrisburg,  says :  "  My  three  children, 
Mary,  Margaret  and  Samuel,  have  felt  so  .sorry  for  the  Johnstown 
people  that  on  the  4th  they  had  a  pin  and  penny  store  for  their 
benefit.  On  Sunday,  when  they  heard  the  appeal  for  your  church 
read,  they  decided  to  send  the  amount  made,  $1.68,  to  you.  The 
pins  the  children  gave  for  the  little  articles  were  sold  for  pennies." 

A  few  days  after  the  catastrophe  a  leading  lady  in  Baltimore 
wrote :  "  Since  the  first  news  of  the  terrible  disaster  which  has 
overwhelmed  your  little  city,  I  have  been  watching  the  papers  for 
tidings  of  you  and  yours.  On  Monday  it  was  announced  that  you 
had  been  saved  from  the  flood,  but  not  until  to-day  have  I  noticed 
any  positive  assurance  that  your  entire  family  had  been  spared. 
The  pastors  of  the  various  churches  here  prayed  most  fervently 
and  tenderly  on  Sabbath  morning  and  night  for  the  sufferers,  and 
made  earnest  pleas  for  relief,  which  met  with  cheerful  and  liberal 
response." 

Another  Baltimore  lady  writes:  "The  inclosed  sum,  ^1.85,  is  the 


DR.   TALMAGES  LETTER.  383 

voluntary  offering  of  twelve  little  girls  (who  have  very  little)  to 
the  Johnstown  sufferers.  They  brought  it  to  me,  their  teacher,  for 
this  purpose.  I  thought  it  best  to  send  it  to  you,  assured  that 
through  you  it  would  go  aright,  small  as  it  is.  May  I  ask  that  you 
would,  at  your  convenience,  send  me  a  postal  card,  just  mention- 
ing its  receipt,  so  that  I  may  read  it  to  the  girls,  as  I  was  the 
recipient?  " 

Dr. T.  DeWitt  Talmage  writes:  "  Having  seen  your  name  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  alleviation  in  your  afflicted  city,  I  write 
you  expressing  the  absorbing  sympathy  felt  by  Brooklyn.  The 
Committee  of  Relief  close  their  labors  to-day,  and  we  report 
$95,905.28  raised  and  sent  for  the  relief  of  Johnstown  and  adjoin- 
ing suffering  districts.  But  many  of  our  citizens  are  in  business  in 
New  York  City,  and  therefore  contributed  through  New  York 
channels ;  so  that,  if  those  sums  were  added,  we  think  from  the 
hands  and  hearts  of  Brooklyn  at  least  $150,000  must  have  been 
sent.  As  chairman  of  the  Brooklyn  Relief  Committee,  I  thought 
it  might  be  well  in  behalf  of  my  fellow-citizens  to  write  this  letter, 
showing  that  our  city  has  been  greatly  moved  by  your  calamity. 
I  will  next  week,  on  my  way  to  Oregon,  pass  through  your  city. 
If  I  could  be  of  any  practical  service  I  would  stop  off.  What  a 
fearful  nervous  strain  you  must  all  have  been  under,  and  how  all 
the  energies  of  the  Christian  ministers  of  your  city  must  have  been 
taxed  in  the  effort  to  comfort  the  bereft !  " 

A  lady  from  Rock  Springs,  Centre  County,  writes  :  "  My  heart 
goes  out  in  deep  sympathy  for  those  who  have  lost  dear  ones.  I 
met  a  Mr.  McConaughey,  a  gentleman  of  seventy  some  years,  last 
October.  He  told  me  his  wife  and  daughters  were  members  of 
your  church.  Now  I  notice  among  the  dead  a  Miss  McConaughey. 
Is  she  his  daughter  ?  Or  are  he  and  family  safe  ?  We  here  were 
21 


384  FROM  THE  SOUTH. 

cut  off  from  travel  for  so  long  or  I  would  have  gone  to  Johnstown 
willingly,  if  my  service  would  have  been  needed,  to  wait  on  the 
suffering,  but  presume  by  this  time  you  have  all  the  help  neces- 
sary. Now  I  trust  God  will  bless  you  in  your  labors  of  love  for 
Him ;  and  you  certainly  are  putting  forth  every  effort  to  comfort 
the  people,  and  trust  they  will  look  to  our  Heavenly  Father,  the 
Great  Comforter." 

The  following  communication  reached  me  June  25th,  accom- 
panied by  a  kind  note  from  the  Governor  : 

"Charleston,  S.  C. 
Hon.  yas.  A.  Beaver,  Harrisburg,  Pa. 

"Dear  Sir: — By  direction  of  the  session  of  Westminister 
Presbyterian  Church  of  this  city,  I  transmit  you  herewith  my 
check  for  ^64.22,  same  being  amount  of  collection  taken  up  in 
said  church  in  aid  of  the  sufferers  in  Johnstown  who  are  connected 
with  the  Presbyterian  Church  there,  and,  as  I  have  been  informed 
that  you  are  a  ruling  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  deem  it 
best  to  send  the  contribution  to  you,  and  would  request  you  to 
forward  the  same  to  the  pastor  or  session  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Johnstown,  and  express  to  them  our  profound  and 
heartfelt  sympathy  in  the  frightful  calamity  which  has  overwhelmed 
them,  and  which  we  of  Charleston  can  take  a  measure  of  as  no 
other  city  in  the  United  States  can,  having  ourselves  experienced 
the  horrors  of  cyclones  and  earthquakes,  and  remember  with  grati- 
tude the  munificent  liberality  and  the  generous  sympathy  of  the 
people  of  the  Keystone  State.     I  have  the  honor  to  be 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"J.  A.  Enslow, 
"  Treasurer  of  Session,  IV.  P.  Church.'' 


CALAMITIES  OF  JOHNSTOWN.  385 

Captain  W.  R.  Jones,  of  Braddock,  received  the  following 
from  Mr.  Karl  Wittgenstein,  the  iron  king  of  Vienna,  Austria: 

"  Dear  Captain  : — I  ordered  $i,ooo  to  be  sent  to  you  on  my 
account,  and  ask  you  to  be  kind  enough  and  take  the  trouble  to 
use  this  small  sum  as  you  think  best  to  help  the  people  who  are 
suffering  in  Johnstown.  It  must  be  dreadful.  I  hope  your  family 
are  all  right.  Yours  very  truly, 

"  Karl  Wittgenstein." 


3. THE    CALAMITIES    OF   JOHNSTOWN. 

There  have  been  so  many  frightful  casualties  at  Johnstown 
that  some  people  think  it  fated ;  others  that  it  must  be  a  very 
wicked  place,  and  these  are  of  the  nature  of  judgments.  These 
are  hasty  and  unreasoning  conclusions.  We  always  make  a  mis- 
take when  we  put  such  special  interpretations  on  signal  or  single 
events.  Johnstown  is  not  more  wicked  than  other  towns  of  its 
size  ;  indeed  it  compares  favorably  with  other  manufacturing  dis- 
tricts, and  can  exhibit  as  large  a  proportion  of  God-fearing  people 
and  consistent  Christians  as  any  other.  Yet  it  has  been  frequently 
the  scene  of  sad  calamities.  On  September  14th,  1866,  occurred 
what  was  termed  the  Platform  accident.  A  train  from  Pittsburgh 
carrying  President  Andrew  Johnson  and  party  stopped  at  the 
station.  A  large  number  of  citizens  had  assembled  on  the  platform 
to  greet  them.  The  President  was  introduced  and  made  a  short 
speech.  Then  calls  were  made  for  General  Grant,  Admiral  Farra- 
gut  and  Hon.  W.  H.  Seward.  Suddenly  with  a  crash  the  plat- 
form, which  spanned  the  abandoned  canal,  went  down  and  pre- 
cipitated hundreds  of  people  into  its  depths.  There  were  shrieks 
and  groans  as  the  victims  fell  upon  each  other  producing  death 
and  broken  limbs.  The  train  moved  on,  leaving  a  wailing 
mass  of  humanity  and  a  death-shrouded  town.     Among  those  who 


386  FIRE  FOLLOWS  FLOOD. 

were  injured  were  Mrs.  David  Creed,  Dr.  George  Wagoner, 
Lucy  Levergood,  Ahlum  Cope,  Mrs.  Oliver  Young,  John  H, 
Fischer  and  'child,  John  S.  Buchanan,  Cyrus  Tutde,  John  Brady, 
Mrs.  Wild,  Jacob  Hamilton  and  Daniel  Unverzagt,  who  perished 
in  the  late  flood.  A  large  number  of  others  received  injuries, 
among  whom  was  Rev.  Dr.  B.  F.  Agnew,  of  Philadelphia. 

Before  a  month  had  expired  after  the  brok-en  dam  disaster, 
while  the  country  was  yet  mourning  with  us  over  its  dire  work, 
another  frightful  scene  appears.  Fire  followed  flood.  As  if  that 
all-wasting  flood  had  not  done  destruction  enough,  a  disastrous 
conflagration  seemed  about  to  devastate  what  little  was  left  of  the 
stricken  town.  About  i  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  Market 
Street  school-house  was  discovered  to  be  on  fire.  This  was 
located  near  the  centre  of  the  town,  and  was  in  good  condition, 
having  escaped  the  flood.  The  flames  communicated  with  the 
other  houses,  and  it  seemed  for  a  time  that  the  rest  of  the  tov/n 
must  go.  Twenty-five  tenements  and  three  public  school-houses 
were  destroyed.  General  Wiley  ordered  out  the  troops  at  hand, 
and  the  section  of  the  Philadelphia  Fire  Department  which  was 
stationed  there  responded  to  the  alarm.  By  their  speedy  and  effi- 
cient service  the  fire  was  soon  under  control  and  put  out.  Most 
of  the  buildings  burned  had  been  badly  damaged  by  the  flood. 

After  this  scene  we  hoped  to  be  exempt  from  horrors  and 
peril.  We  felt  that  we  had  received  our  full  complement  of  dis- 
aster, and  that  we  might  have  rest  after  so  much  agitation  and 
distress.  On  the  night  of  December  loth,  1889,  however,  Johns- 
town was  again  startled  by  the  cry  of  fire.  Parke's  Opera  House 
was  filled  from  floor  to  ceiling  with  a  mass  of  people  to  witness  the 
play  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  That  cry  of  fire  outside  was  caught  by 
some  one  in  the  gallery  and  repeated.  A  panic  immediately  seized 
the  whole  assembly.  Ever^^body  rushed  for  the  exits.  No  one 
took   time  for  second,    sober  thought.       The    rush   was    fearful. 


THE  OPERA-HOUSE  PANIC.  387 

Women  shrieked  and  fainted  ;  men  and  boys  yelled.  In  die  mad 
rush,  hundreds  were  trampled  upon.  Ten  were  killed  and  nine- 
teen injured.  It  is  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  this  play  was 
acted  in  the  same  building  at  its  opening,  February,  1869.  This 
disaster  was  entirely  causeless.  There  was  no  fire.  Dr.  A.  N. 
Wakefield's  hostler,  before  retiring,  stirred  up  his  fire.  His  quar- 
ters are  in  the  rear  of  the  doctor's  residence.  The  smoke  from 
the  low  chimney  enveloped  it.  A  passing  observer,  supposing 
that  the  residence  was  on  fire,  gave  the  alarm  which  was  heard 
and  repeated  in  the  Opera  House  with  fatal  result.  Every  one  of 
these  calamities  is  traceable  directly  to  the  folly,  ignorance  and 
criminal  carelessness  or  neglect  of  man.  They  therefore  do  not 
furnish  any  occasion  for  complaint  of  or  repining  at  the  Provi- 
dence of  God. 

DR.  T.  DEWITT  TALMAGE  ON  THE  FLOOD. 

The  following  letter  of  Dr.  Talmage  was  written  to  the  New 
York  World,  on  July  20th,  1889,  during  his  visit  to  Johnstown. 
The  Doctor's  ardent  sympathy  for  us  and  his  desire  to  ascertain 
our  true  condition  inspired  this  visit.  We  received  him  as  a 
"  brother  beloved,"  but  we  were  in  no  condition  to  entertain  him 
as  we  desired  or  as  we  had  done.  We  had  no  homes  to  take  him 
in,  no  tables  to  spread  before  him  ;  but  our  hearts  were  as  wide  and 
ready  as  ever  to  receive  him  whose  voice  is  hailed  with  delight 
the  world  over,  and  whose  presence  is  a  benediction  wherever 
he  goes.     Mr.  A.  J.  Haws  was  host  to  Dr.  Talmage. 

I  desired  to  strike  out  from  this  letter  and  other  articles 
in  the  book  all  personal  allusions  to  myself,  but  my  friends  and 
counselors  in  its  preparation  forbade  it,  on  the  ground  that  I  was 
a  part  of  the  history  for  which  the  book  is  written — that  I  must 
subject  my  aversion  to  personal  mention  to  the  opinions  and  views 
of  the  contributors  to  the  book  and  the  history  it  contains. 


388  DR.   TALMAGE'S  LETTER. 

Dr.  Talmaofe  wrote : 

"When  I  first  came  here  on  Friday  I  was  impressed  with  the 
courage  and  pluck  of  the  survivors  of  the  catastrophe.  They 
will,  with  the  help  of  outsiders,  rebuild  their  city,  and  in  five  years 
it  will  be  a  more  prosperous  place  than  it  ever  was.  They  are  an 
honest  people,  and  can  get  any  amount  of  commercial  credit  they 
ask  for.  Many  of  the  citizens  temporarily  absent  will  return,  and 
comfortable  homes,  large  storehouses  and  great  factories  will 
stand  where  now  are  awful  ruins.  The  stories  circulated  about  the 
Johnstown  people  having  lost  their  faith  in  God,  and  given  up  the 
Christian  religion  because  of  this  calamity,  I  denounce  as  false  and 
scoundrelly.  The  pastors  tell  me  that  there  was  not  one  such 
case.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  more  prayer  and  Christian  devo- 
tion than  ever  before.  Even  infidels  pray.  One  of  them,  the  after- 
noon of  the  disaster,  in  the  upper  room  of  a  house  which  was 
rapidly  filling  with  water,  was  overheard  to  pray:  "O  God!  if 
you  can  give  me  any  aid  at  this  time,  I  will  be  very  much  obliged 
to  you."  All  that  story  published  through  the  land  about  the  peo- 
ple of  Johnstown  in  disgust  burning  their  Bibles  is  a  hemispheric 
falsehood. 

"The  work  that  has  been  done  here  by  their  own  ministers 
and  physicians  and  good  men  and  women,  and  without  compensa- 
tion, should  be  spoken  of  everywhere.  In  applauding  outside 
workers  we  have  neglected  to  appreciate  the  Johnstown  Howards 
and  Florence  Nightingales,  who  may  be  counted  by  the  score^ 
though  they  saved  nothing  from  the  wreck  except  the  clothes  on 
their  persons.  Let  all  the  people  North,  South,  East  and  West, 
and  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  understand  that  in  their  gifts  to  the 
flooded  districts  they  did  not  do  too  much  or  give  too  quickly.  Not 
5  per  cent,  of  the  anguish  has  been  told. 

"  My  heart  is  wrung  with  what  I  saw  on  Friday.  Can  it  be  pos- 
sible that  this  is  the  beautiful  and  hospitable  Johnstown  that  I  saw 


WORSE   THAN  REPORTED.  389 

in  other  days  ?  Where  once  was  a  street  suggesting  Eudid 
Avenue,  Cleveland,  is  a  long  ridge  of  sand,  strewn  with  broken 
planks  and  twisted  iron.  At  the  moment  when  a  great  freshet 
which  had  been  rao:inpf  for  hours  had  beofun  to  assuaofe,  a  wave 
from  twenty  to  forty  feet  high  rolls  over  the  already  angry  waters, 
and  on  that  surmounting  wave  floated  eight  hundred  houses, 
twenty-eight  locomotives  from  the  round  houses  and  hundreds  of 
people,  many  dead,  many  dying,  a  mass  of  helpless  and  appalled 
humanity.  Two  thousand  dead  discovered  and  two  thousand  mis- 
sing make  me  believe  that  the  story  of  how  many  thousand  per- 
ished will  never  be  told  until  the  resurrection  trumpet  shall  be 
sounded. 

"To  show  how  accustomed  to  scenes  of  death  this  district  has 
become,  on  Friday,  while  a  human  body  was  being  taken  out  of  the 
ruins  and  I  stood  looking  aghast  at  the  spectacle  and  the  laborers, 
no  crowd  gathered,  and  workmen  a  hundred  feet  away  did  not  stop 
their  work. 

"Such  an  avalanche  of  wretchedness  never  slipped  upon  any 
American  city.  Horrors  piled  on  horrors,  woe  augmenting  woe ; 
bankruptcy,  orphanage,  widowhood,  childlessness,  obliterated 
homesteads,  gorged  cemeteries  and  scenes  so  excruciating — it  is 
a  marvel  that  any  one  could  look  upon  them  and  escape  insanity. 
No  fear  that  sympathy  for  Johnstown  Avill  be  overdone!  The  two 
and  a  half  million  dollars  contributed  is  a  small  amount  compared 
with  the  thirty  millions  by  this  flood  demolished. 

"Was  the  work  of  devastation  as  great  as  I  supposed?  Far 
worse.  Types  cannot  tell  it.  Only  the  eye  can  make  revelation. 
But  the  worst  part  of  it  cannot  be  seen.  The  heart-wreck  caused 
by  the  sudden  departure  of  so  many  can  be  open  only  to  one  eye, 
and  that  the  All-Seeing.  Think  of  one  family  of  fourteen  all  dead . 
except  one,  and  that  the  wife  and  mother,  and  she  the  witness  of 
their  drowning- !     I  saw  the  grave  trench   in  which  two  hundred 


390 


SYMPATHY  STILL  NEEDED. 


and  sixty  were  buried,  and  the  whole  graveyard  Hke  a  National 
cemetery,  in  which  the  unrecognized  dead  have  a  particular  number 
placed  above  them  and  are  recorded  in  the  undertakers'  rooms 
with  a  description  of  the  body  and  clothes.  I  can  well  understand 
how  many  of  the  survivors  who  had  buried  their  kindred  before 
this  disaster  occurred,  thanked  God  that  they  were  gone,  saying: 
'Oh,  I  am  so  glad  that  they  escaped  this.' 

''Long  after  contributions  of  money  have  ceased,  Johnstown 
will  stand  in  need  of  the  sympathy  of  all  nations.  Let  those  who 
to-night  have  roofs  over  their  heads  and  their  families  around  them, 
or  the  bodies  of  their  departed  in  garlanded  sepulchres,  give  at 
least  one  prayerful  thought  to  the  shattered  homesteads  of  Johns- 
town, and  those  who  know  not  in  what  depth  of  river  or  what  pile 
of  debris  the  beloved  form  of  father  or  mother  or  husband  or  wife 
or  child  may  be  slumbering.  Among  the  Johnstown  people  who 
have  been  heroic,  assiduous  and  self-denying,  I  mention  Rev.  David 
J.  Beale,  D.D.,  who  has  presided  over  the  morgues  and  been  in- 
spiration and  hope  and  cheer  to  all  people.  On  the  night  of  the 
disaster,  having  escaped  with  his  family  from  the  topmost  window 
of  his  home  and  climbed  across  the  roofs  of  floating  houses,  he 
entered  the  window  of  a  tall  building  where  there  were,  on  the 
three  floors,  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  people,  and  he  spent 
the  night  going  from  floor  to  floor  praying  with  the  distressed  and 
frantic,  and  uttering  words  eloquent  with  good  cheer.  But  room 
would  fail  to  write  not  of  the  five,  but  the  five  hundred  acts  of  this 
tragedy  of  centuries.  T.  DeWitt  Talmage." 


4. PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

ARTHUR  J.  MOXHAM. 

There  are  unwritten  histories  of  men  whose  heroic  accom- 
plishments in  useful  industry  entitle  them  to  greater  fame  than 
the  "hero  of  an  hundred  battles."     The  man  who,  overcoming  the 


SKETCH  OF  MK.  MOXHAM.  393 

disadvantages  of  a  restricted  life,  without  command  of  the  ordi- 
nary resources  of  money  and  influence,  rises  by  self-cuhure  and 
persistent  industry  to  prominence  and  success,  is  deserving  of 
great  honor.  The  men  who  "  scorn  dehghts  and  live  laborious 
days "  are  educating  themselves  in  a  school  from  which  they 
inevitably  graduate  with  honor  to  themselves  and  with  benefit  to 
all  who  follow  them.  An  example  of  this  is  one  of  Johnstown's 
most  valued  and  valuable  citizens,  Mr.  Arthur  J.  Moxham,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Johnson  Company,  whose  rolling-mills  and  iron-works 
are  among  the  most  extensive  in  the  country. 

Mr.  Moxham  comes  from  that  sturdy,  talented,  heroic  little 
country  in  the  heart  of  England  that  has  refused  to  be  absorbed, 
and  to  this  day  holds  the  princedom  which  is  succession  to  the 
throne  of  Great  Britain — Wales.  He  was  born  in  Glamorranshire, 
September  19th,  1854.  At  the  age  of  15,  in  1869,  he  came  to 
this  country.  He  found  his  way  to  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  there 
engaged  in  iron  manufacture  until  1875.  During  this  short  period 
he  made  such  rapid  progress  in  the  science  of  the  iron  industry 
as  to  become  an  expert  as  well  as  a  practical  workman.  In 
1878,  he  removed  to  Birmingham,  Ala.,  where  he  organized  the 
Birmingham  Rolling-Mill  Company,  and  built  according  to  his 
own  ideas  and  plans  the  Birmingham  Rolling-Mills,  which  are  the 
largest  merchant  mills  in  the  Southern  States.  He  retained  the 
management  of  these  for  two  years  and  then  returned  to  Louis- 
ville. Shortly  after  this  he  was  elected  president  of  the  Johnson 
Company  at  Johnstown,  to  which  he  moved  in  1883.  These 
works,  comprising  rolling-mills,  the  Miles  foundry  and  a  curve 
and  switch  work,  have  greatly  prospered  under  his  direction. 

Mr.  Moxham  married  Miss  Helen  Coleman,  of  an  old  and 
prominent  Kentucky  family.  The  public  estimate  was  indicated 
in  the  choice  of  him,  immediately  after  the  flood,  to  be  the  chief 
of  the  provisional  government. 


394  SKETCH  OF  GOVERNOR  BEAVER. 

GOVERNOR  BEAVER. 

General  James  A,  Beaver  was  born  In  Millerstown,  Pa.,  Octo- 
ber 2 1  St,  1837.  His  ancestors  came  from  Alsace  in  1740,  and  were 
Huguenots  seeking  refuge  and  religious  freedom  in  x'\merica.  They 
settled  in  Chester  County,  Pa.,  and  became  principal  actors  in  the 
affairs  of  the  colony  and  the  struggle  for  independence.  In  all  the 
wars  of  the  country  and  in  times  of  peace  they  have  acted  a  lead- 
ing part.  James  A.  Beaver's  father  died  in  1840,  three  years  after 
the  birth  of  his  son,  and  to  his  mother's  care,  training  and  influence 
he  owes  his  education  and  success.  In  1846  she  sent  him  to  school 
in  Belleville,  Mifflin  County.  In  1852  he  was  removed  to  Pine 
Grove  Academy,  whence,  in  1854,  he  entered  the  junior  class  in 
Jefferson  College.  He  graduated  in  1856,  and  then  read  law 
with  H.  N.  McAllister  at  Bellefonte,  Pa,  and  on  arriving  at  age  be- 
came his  partner,  and  later,  his  son-in-law. 

Here  he  joined  the  military  company,  "  Bellefonte  Fencibles," 
under  command  of  Captain  Andrew  G.  Curtin,  afterward  the 
"War  Governor  of  Pennsylvania."  He  was  2d  Lieutenant  of 
this  company  at  the  secession  of  the  Southern  States,  and  on  the 
President's  call  for  troops  he  offered  himself.  On  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  45th  Regiment  of  Pennsylvania  Volunteers  he  was  made 
Lieutenant  Colonel.  On  the  new  call  for  volunteers,  in  1862,  he 
was  commissioned  Colonel  of  the  148th  Regiment,  having  rendered 
eminent  service  at  Hilton  Head,  South  Carolina,  and  other  places. 
His  new  regiment  was  first  assigned  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
in  General  Hancock's  Corps,  at  Fredricksburg,  and  first  engaged 
in  battle  at  Chancellorsville,  May  2d  and  3d,  1863,  when  it  main- 
tained the  advanced  position  and  suffered  heavily.  Colonel  Beaver 
being  wounded  at  the  head  of  the  regiment.  During  the  treat- 
ment of  his  wounds  he  was  appointed,  at  his  own  request,  recruit- 
ing officer  of  Camp  Curtin.      He  rejoined  his  regiment  at  Gettys- 


SKETCH  OF  GOVERNOR  BEAVER.  3gc; 

burg,  though  his  condition  would  not  permit  of  his  participating  in 
the  battle.  He  led  it  through  the  Wilderness  campaign,  1864,  and 
led  the  successful  assault  upon  the  Confederate  works  at  Spottsyl- 
vania  Court  House.  At  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor,  June  3,  1864, 
Colonel  Brooke  having  been  wounded,  he  was  put  in  command  of 
the  brigade,  and  held  the  advanced  position  under  fire  all  day. 
On  June  i6th,  1864,  he  was  again  wounded  in  the  first  assault 
upon  Petersburg.  He  returned  to  duty,  although  not  in  a  condi- 
tion to  do  so.  He  rode  to  the  battlefield  of  Ream's  Station  in  an 
ambulance,  and  just  as  he  assumed  command  his  right  leg  was 
shattered,  necessitating  amputation,  rendering  him  incapable  of  ac- 
tive service.  He  was  brevetted  Brigadier  General  of  Volunteers 
November  loth,  1864.  He  refused  to  be  promoted,  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  remove  him  from  the  regiment  with  which  he  had 
enlisted  and  desired  to  remain  until  the  end. 

Governor  Beaver  has  been  successful  in  his  profession  of  the 
law.  His  prominence  has  not  been  acquired  by  his  self-seeking,  per- 
sonal efforts,  for  he  has  ever  devoted  himself  closely  to  his  own  line 
of  duty  and  life.  He  has  been  sought  out  by  his  fellow-citizens.  He 
was  elected  a  trustee  of  the  Pennsylvania  State  University  in  1873. 
He  was  elected  Governor  of  the  State  in  1886,  in  which  position 
he  became  the  natural  helper  of  desolated  Johnstown. 

Governor  Beaver  has  been  true  to  the  religious  teachings  of 
his  mother  and  the  traditions  of  his  Huguenot  ancestors.  He  united 
with  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  was  elected  to  the  ruling  elder- 
ship. He  holds  this  office  to-day ;  and  while  his  Christian  views 
and  sympathies  are  comprehensive,  he  is  a  consistent  and  earnest 
Presbyterian.  This,  perhaps,  has  something  to  do  with  one  of  his 
leading  characteristics — that  he  is  never  loth  to  assume  responsi- 
bility of  duty  and  action  when  once  he  is  satisfied  that  they  attach 
to  him. 


596  SKETCH  OF  GENERAL  HASTINGS. 

GENERAL  D.  H.  HASTINGS. 

It  is  difficult  to  express  in  a  few  lines  the  value  of  General 
Hastings'  services  and  the  kindly  regard  the  people  of  Conemaugh 
Valley  entertain  toward  him.  He  arrived  on  June  ist,  and  dur- 
ing his  stay  discharged  the  difficult  and  delicate  duties  of  his 
position  in  a  manner  entirely  creditable  to  himself  and  satisfactory 
to  the  people.  Colonel  Spangler  shows  this  in  his  report,  in  which 
he  renders  his  testimony  as  an  associate  of  General  Hastings  in 
the  government  and  relief  of  our  stricken  valley. 

General  Daniel  Hartman  Hastings  was  born  at  Salona,  Clin- 
ton County,  Pennsylvania,  February  26th,  1849.  His  father  was  a 
native  of  Ireland,  and  his  mother  of  Scotland.  Thus  he  combines 
in  himself  the  blood  of  the  two  peoples  who  have  made  themselves 
notable  in  the  history  of  the  world  in  the  struggle  for  civil  and 
religious  liberty. 

His  life  until  he  was  14  was  spent  on  a  farm,  alternately  work- 
ing and  attending  the  district  school.  He  so  improved  his  oppor- 
tunities as  to  be  able  at  14  to  teach  school;  and  in  1867,  when 
only  18,  he  was  elected  principal  of  the  Bellefonte  public  schools, 
which  position  he  held  until  1875.  During  this  time  he  pur- 
sued a  course  of  higher  studies,  classical  and  English,  and  for 
part  of  the  time  was  associate  editor  of  the  Bellefonte  Republican. 
Here  he  read  law  with  the  firm  of  Bush  &  Yocum,  of  Bellefonte, 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1875,  and  entered  into  partnership 
with  them,  the  firm  becoming  Bush,  Yocum  &  Hastings.  He 
subsequently  associated  with  Wilbur  F.  Reeder,  as  Hastings  & 
Reeder,  In  October,  1877,  he  married  Miss  Jane  Armstrong 
Rankin,  of  Bellefonte. 

General  Hastings  has  always  taken  active  interest  in  public  af- 
fairs. In  1876  he  was  chief  burgess  of  Bellefonte  and  is  now  a  trustee 
of  the  Pennsylvania  State  University.  Ever  since  he  entered  the 
National  Guard  of  the  State,  it  has  improved.     He  has  risen  from 


CL ER G  } 'MEN  LOST  IN  THE  FL OOD.  397 

the  position  of  Captain  to  that  of  Adjutant  General,  to  which  he 
was  appointed  by  Governor  Beaver,  January  i8th,  1887. 


REV.  ALONZO  POTTER  DILLER. 

Rev.  Alonzo  P.  Diller,  rector  of  St.  Mark's  Protestant  Epis- 
copal church,  whose  death  is  recorded  in  another  part  of  the  book, 
was  greatly  beloved  by  his  own  parishioners  and  highly  esteemed 
by  the  whole  community.  He  was  a  cultured  gentleman,  and 
efficient  minister  of  the  Gospel,  He  was  a  graduate  of  Franklin 
and  Marshall  College  in  Lancaster  City,  the  residence  of  his  father, 
who  is  a  very  influential  citizen  of  that  portion  of  the  State.  Mr. 
Diller  was  only  about  30  years  of  age,  and  had  attained  a  wide 
reputation  in  his  denomination  as  a  writer  and  preacher.  He  mar- 
ried one  of  Johnstown's  most  attractive  and  cultivated  young  ladies. 
Their  death  has  made  a  vacancy  in  the  Church  and  society  which 
can  scarce  be  filled.  I  have  made  m  any  efforts  to  obtain  the  par- 
ticular incidents  of  his  life  and  ministerial  career,  so  as  to  publish  a 
biographical  sketch,  but  have  not  been  successful. 


REV.  GEORGE  WAGONER,  M.D. 

Rev.  George  Wagoner  was  born  near  Madison,  Westmoreland 
County,  Pa.  His  parents  came  from  Germany.  He  was  64  years 
of  age  when  he  died.  His  father.  Rev.  George  Wagoner,  was  a 
minister  in  the  Allegheny  Conference  of  the  Church  of  United 
Brethren  in  Christ.  Rev.  Dr.  Wagoner  early  became  a  sincere 
Christian,  and  a  useful  member  of  the  same  Conference.  He 
spent  many  years  in  the  active  work  of  the  ministry,  and  was  an 
able  expounder  of  the  Word — very  successful  in  winning  souls  to 
Christ  and  in  building  up  the  Church. 

During  the  last  years  of  his  life,  on  account  of  ill-health,  he 


398  CLERG  YMEN  L OS T  IN  THE  FLOOD. 

was  not  able  to  preach  and  labor  constantly.  He  was  located  in 
Johnstown,  and  there  organized  a  Sabbath -school  and  labored 
especially  for  the  salvation  of  the  young.  He  was  assigned  to 
that  charge  by  the  Conference  from  year  to  year  until  his  death. 
The  charge  was  called  Stony  Creek  Mission.  Up  to  the  31st  of 
May,  when  the  great  flood  came  upon  us,  he  conducted  the  Sab- 
bath-school. He  had  purchased  ground  on  which  he  intended  to 
build  a  chapel. 

The  terrible  tempest  and  flood  swept  away  Dr.  Wagoner's 
house,  which  was  a  solid  brick  structure,  drowning  himself,  his 
wife  and  his  three  unmarried  daughters. 

Mrs.  Mary  Wagoner,  his  wife,  was  60  years  of  age  ;  Miss 
Cora  Wagoner  was  23,  Miss  Lizzie  21,  and  Miss  Frances  18  years. 

Another  daughter,  Emma  W.,  who  was  married  to  Mr.  Frank 
Bowman,  was  also  lost  in  the  flood,  with  her  two  children,  Jessie 
and  Francis,  4  and  2  years  of  age. 

The  religious  denomination  of  which  this  godly  man  and 
esteemed  citizen  was  a  minister,  during  a  camp  meeting  at  Cape 
May  in  the  summer  of  1889,  held  a  memorial  service  to  him.  His 
character,  life  and  ministry  were  commended  by  his  brethren  in 
affectionate  terms  as  worthy  of  all  example. 

REV.  EDWARD  W.  JONES,  D.D. 

Rev.  Dr.  Edward  W.  Jones  was  the  pastor  of  the  Welsh 
Congregational  church.  He  was  born  in  North  Wales  in  1832, 
and,  after  fifteen  years  in  the  ministry  there,  emigrated  hither,  and 
was  for  eighteen  years  pastor  in  Johnstown.  He  ably  and  faith- 
fully performed  all  the  duties  of  the  ministry,  and  had  gathered  a 
devoted  flock  around  him.  He  was  a  true  shepherd,  understanding 
and  fulfilling  his  office  of  teacher  and  guide.  He  possessed  the 
sturdy  and  generous  qualities  of  the  Welsh  people,  their  strength 


CLERGYMEN  LOST  IN  THE  FLOOD.  399 

of  intellect  and  religious  principles.  He  and  his  entire  household 
perished  in  the  Hood,  with  the  little  daughter  of  Mr,  R.  R.  Thomas, 
who  was  at  the  time  in  his  house.  The  body  of  Mrs.  Jones  is  the 
only  one  of  the  family  that  has  been  recovered. 

Of  the  150  members  of  his  church  sixty  were  destroyed.  All 
of  these  were  worthy,  industrious  and  useful  people.  Such  a  ca- 
lamity as  this  alone  would  have  spread  a  dark  pall  over  the  city.  The 
church  building  as  well  as  the  parsonage  was  entirely  swept  away. 
Thus  this  congregation  of  most  excellent  people  of  God  was  most 
severely  afflicted.  Truly  "  out  of  the  depths  they  cry  unto  the 
Lord."  They  now  hold  their  services  in  the  rooms  formerly  occu- 
pied by  the  State  Flood  Commission, 


REV.  J.  PHILLIP  LICHTENBERG. 

Rev.  J.  Phillip  Lichtenberg,  the  German  Lutheran  minister 
who  was  drowned,  was  born  in  Cassel,  Germany.  After  gradu- 
ating from  the  Gymnasium  College  at  Hersfeldt,  he  entered  the 
Marburg  University,  whence  he  went  to  Basle,  Switzerland,  to 
study  the  Arabic  and  Amharic  languages,  with  a  view  to  entering 
on  missionary  labor  in  Abyssinia. 

In  1867  he  was  prevented  from  embarking  on  his  mission 
there  by  the  war  against  King  Theodore.  In  this  same  year,  he 
changed  his  plans,  came  to  this  country,  and  entered  the  Lutheran 
Theological  Seminary  in  Philadelphia.  After  graduating  in  1869, 
and  being  ordained  priest,  he  received  a  call  to  Saugerties,  Ulster 
County,  N,  Y.  In  1878  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Lutheran  Zion 
Church  of  Utica,  N.  Y.  After  doing  good  work  at  this  place,  he 
came  to  Johnstown  early  in  the  month  on  the  last  day  of  which  the 
great  disaster  befell  us.  On  the  24th  of  May  he  wrote  to  Mr, 
Kessler  a  letter  in  which  the  following  language  occurs  : 

"  Johnstown  is  beautifully  situated,  and  has  about  thirty  thou- 


400  SKETCH  OF  JOHN  FENN. 

sand  inhabitants,  many  of  whom  are  wealthy  and  cultured  German 
Lutheran  people.  They  were  formerly  divided  among  them- 
selves, but  have,  through  my  unanimous  selection,  been  happily 
united,  and  are  now  active  and  enthusiastic  in  church  work.  A  new 
school-house  will  be  built,  and  we  have  a  fine  teacher  whose  father 
and  brother  are  preachers  in  Baltimore.  I  have  formed  a  young 
men's  society,  and  hope  to  make  its  membership  over  three  hun- 
dred. I  have  also  formed  a  young  ladies'  society.  Every  seat  in 
the  large  church  is  rented,  and  never  before  did  I  see  so  many 
men  in  a  congregation.  I  thank  God  for  the  change.  He  has  done 
all  things  wonderfully  well.  My  congregation  is  now  engaged  on 
a  new  constitution,  and  I  can  remain  in  the  General  Synod.  The 
old  constitution  forbade  this." 

Before  leaving  Utica  he  sang  "  Jerusalem  the  Golden,  I  would 
I  were  in  Thee."  Sooner  than  he  expected  his  wish  has  been 
granted. 

JOHN  FENN. 

The  circumstances  attending  the  death  of  Mr.  John  Fenn  are 
peculiarly  sad  and  touching.  He  was  one  of  the  best  and  most 
enterprising  of  Johnstown's  citizens — an  honest  man  and  sincere 
Christian.  By  honorable  and  persistent  industry  he  had  built  up 
a  successful  stove  and  tinware  business,  and  had  in  the  home  he 
was  enabled  to  maintain  a  happy  family  group  in  his  wife  and 
seven  lovely  children.  He  was  at  the  store  when  the  waters  arose 
to  an  unusual  height,  and,  becoming  alarmed  for  his  loved  ones, 
started  for  his  home.  He  was  overtaken  by  the  fearful  wave.  He 
took  refuge  in  the  house  of  the  editor  of  the  Johnstown  Democrat. 
Soon,  however,  that  house  was  knocked  to  pieces,  and  he  was 
thrown  into  the  flood.  Seeing  that  he  must  perish,  he  called  to 
Mr.  Henry  Derritt  to  bid  his  wife  and  children  farewell,  and  then 
was  swept  out  of  sight.     His  own  house,  at  the  same  time,  with 


SKE  TCH  OF  JOHN  DIBER  T.  403 

Mrs.  Fenn  and  the  children,  was  hurled  away  and  demolished. 
The  children  all  perished ;  Mrs.  Fenn  was  saved  in  a  wondrous 
way.  She  was  unable  for  weeks  by  reason  of  sickness  to  obtain 
any  clew  to  their  remains.  But  finally  the  bodies  of  little  Bismarck 
and  Genieve  were  identified,  and,  later,  the  grave  of  her  husband, 
in  Prospect  Cemetery,  by  a  key-ring  and  pocket-book  which  had 
been  preserved  in  the  Presbyterian  Morgue  and  numbered  cor- 
respondingly with  the  grave.  The  picture  of  the  Fenn  group  in 
another  part  of  this  book  emphasizes  the  sad  story  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  Mr.  Fenn's  home,  and  of  the  lonely  and  childless  widow. 

JOHN  DIBERT. 

John  Dibert  was  born  in  Somerset  County,  Pa.,  January,  1831, 
He  came  to  Johnstown  in  1846,  where  becoming  a  hardware  mer- 
chant he  accumulated  property  until  he  counted  his  wealth  by  hun- 
dreds of  thousands.  His  mapfnificent  residence  on  Main  Street 
melted  before  the  flood.  He  and  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Sue  Weaver, 
and  two  grandchildren  were  drowned.  Mrs.  Dibert  was  severely 
injured  by  the  falling  of  a  part  of  the  wall,  but  is  recovering.  Mr. 
Dibert  became  one  of  the  very  first  influential  citizens  of  Johns- 
town— a  leader  in  all  commercial  and  public  enterprises.  He  was 
a  valuable  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  was  ever 
ready  to  advance  its  welfare  and  encourage  the  pastor.  The  loss 
to  the  Church  can  never  be  repaired. 

James  P.  McConaughey,  a  nephew  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  McCon- 
aughey,  a  former  president  of  Washington  College,  Pa.,  was  one 
of  our  most  prominent  citizens.  His  large  residence  on  the 
corner  of  Walnut  and  Locust  Streets  was  swept  away  as  grass 
before  a  scythe.  He,  his  wife  and  one  son  perished.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  even-tempered  and  upright  men  I  ever  knew.  He 
was  about  70  years  of  age. 


404 


SKETCHES  OF  VARIOUS  CITIZENS. 


Howard  J.  Roberts  was  cashier  of  First  National  Bank, 
about  60  years  of  age,  and  one  of  our  most  reliable  citizens.  He, 
his  wife  and  youngest  son,  Otis,  were  drowned.  He  was  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  best  bankers  in  Western  Pennsylvania. 

From  the  legal  profession,  Mr.  Harry  G.  Rose,  John  N. 
Weakland  and  Theodore  F.  Zimmerman  were  lost.  The  bar  of 
Johnstown  in  their  death  suffers  a  great  bereavement. 

The  People's  Building  and  Loan  Association,  of  which  Mr. 
Rose  was  solicitor,  passed  a  series  of  resolutions,  of  which  this 
one  expresses  the  estimate  in  which  he  was  held : 

Resolved,  That  in  his  demise  the  bar  of  Cambria  County  has 
lost  one  of  its  shining  lights,  our  Association  a  valuable  officer,  his 
wife  a  loving  husband,  society  a  leading  member,  and  his  compan- 
ions a  sincere  friend. 

Mr.  Rose  was  also  the  District  Attorney,  and  as  such  magni- 
fied his  office,  and  discharged  all  its  duties  ably  and  to  the  praise 
of  the  courts.  His  death,  just  at  the  time  when  he  had  demon- 
strated his  abilities  and  worth  to  the  whole  community,  and  as  he 
had  entered  upon  the  strength  of  his  manhood  and  powers,  is 
beyond  question  one  of  the  heaviest  losses  which  Johnstown 
suffered  by  the  flood. 

The  medical  faculty  lost  Drs.  L.  T.  Beam,  W.  C.  Beam,  J. 
K.  Lee,  J.  P.  Wilson,  H.  W.  Marbourg  and  C.  C.  Brinkey,  all  of 
whom  were  skillful  physicians,  and  had  successfully  established 
themselves  in  practice. 

John  G.  Alexander,  in  1S82,  removed  with  his  family  to  Johns- 
town, where  he  took  the  same  position  in  the  Church  and  in  society 
which  he  had  occupied  in  his  former  homes.  He  was  elected  an 
elder  in  the  Church,  and  superintendent  of  the  Sabbath-school. 
Tliese  offices  he  filled  with  great  faithfulness  and  acceptability. 


APOCRYPHAL  STORIES.  405 

Little  is  known  of  the  immediate  circumstances  attending  the 
loss  of  Mr,  Alexander's  life,  and  that  of  his  wife,  by  the  dreadful 
torrent  that  swept  Johnstown  and  its  people  to  destruction.  He 
was  spoken  to  by  a  friend  shordy  before,  and  returned  to  his 
house.     The  cold  waters  cover  the  rest  of  the  story. 

Out  of  I  26  Hebrew  citizens  of  Johnstown,  thirty-two  perished. 
Henry  Goldenberg,  A.  J.  Nathan  and  others  who  were  drowned 
stood  in  the  front  rank  as  merchants. 

The  Roman  Catholic  churches,  of  which  there  are  four  in  the 
borough,  lost  about  a  thousand  of  their  people.  Ex-Sheriff  Ryan 
and  J.  J.  Murphy  were  among  the  most  prominent  of  this  faith 
whom  the  flood  swept  away. 

Mr.  Jacob  Swank  was  an  honored  Johnstowner.  Born  m 
Somerset  County,  he  came  to  this  city  when  about  30  years  of 
age,  and  for  three  decades  filled  here  an  important  place  in 
society,  in  business,  and  in  the  Lutheran  Church. 

Among  the  rescuers  at  the  stone  bridge  special  praise  is 
awarded  Superintendent  Hayes,  Liveryman  Young,  Jacob  Smith, 
Alexander  Adair,  and  the  son  of  Judge  Potts. 

5. APOCRYPHAL  STORIES. 

THE  PAUL  REVERE  OF  JOHNSTOWN. 

It  may  not  be  always  desirable  to  disenchant  the  mind  of 
illusions  or  to  refute  apocryphal  stories  of  heroic  achievement. 
When  their  purpose  is  to  please  the  fancy,  or  incite  to  noble  deeds, 
they  may  be  allowed  to  stand.  We  do  not  even  in  this  prosaic 
age  moot  the  question  whether  the  exploits  of  William  Tell,  or 
Arnold  von  Winkelried,  or  Joan  of  Arc,  or  Robin  Hood  and  his 
merry  men  were  historical,  or  only  mythical,  inspired  by  the  spirit 
of  resistance  to  tyranny  and  the  desire  to  infuse  the  love  of  liberty 
into  the  breasts  of  men. 


406  THE  PAUL  REVERE  STORY. 

In  times  of  war  there  are  nearly  always  some  who  de- 
velop heroic  traits  and  make  the  "  circumstances  of  war "  the 
occasion  of  some  splendid  deed. 

In  times  of  calamity  there  are  those  whose  nature  is  so  heroic 
as  to  forget  their  own  peril  in  the  desire  to  save  others.  Regard- 
less of  personal  safety,  they  fly  to  the  rescue.  Some  of 
these  supreme  ones  have  become  immortalized  in  art  and  epic 
verse,  but  best  of  all  in  the  hearts  of  mankind.  Conemaugh  Val- 
ley furnished  many  who  will  never  be  immortalized  in  song  and 
story. 

When  a  newspaper  employs  a  correspondent,  or  the  corre- 
spondent undertakes  to  manufacture  a  hero  for  a  stipulated  price, 
those  who  know  of  the  fraud  should  expose  it — especially  if  the 
conclusions,  which  will  be  inevitably  drawn  from  it,  reflect  upon 
the  common  sense  of  the  sufferers  in  the  calamity. 

A  story  was  published  in  a  leading  daily  and  reprinted  over 
the  world  of  an  alleged  young  hero  who  is  said  to  have  seized  a 
horse  and  rode  with  speed  through  the  valley  and  the  streets  of 
Johnstown,  w^arning  the  people  of  the  coming  flood,  crying,  "To 
the  hills:  the  dam  has  broken."  It  was  said  he  did  not  leave  the 
lowlands  until  he  had  completed  the  circuit  of  the  city,  and  with 
the  leaping,  rolling  flood  fast  upon  his  track  sought  to  reach  the 
hills,  but  was  overwhelmed  and  drowned.  I  give  my  readers 
a  part  of  this  story  from  one  of  the  books,  as  a  specimen  of  imag- 
inative heroism  :  "  At  last  he  completed  the  circuit  of  the  city,  and 
started  in  search  of  a  place  of  safety  for  himself.  To  the  hills  he 
urged  his  noble  steed  Tired  out  from  its  awful  ride,  the  animal 
became  slower  and  slower  at  every  stride,  while  the  water  con- 
tinued to  come  faster  and  faster  in  pursuit.  Like  an  assassin  upon 
the  trail  of  its  victim,  it  gained  step  by  step  upon  the  intrepid 
rider.  But  the  hills  are  in  sight.  Yes,  he  will  gain  them  in  safety. 
No,  he  is  doomed  ;  for  at  that  moment  a  mighty  wave,   blacker 


THE  FABRICA  TION  EXPOSED.  407 

and  angrier  than  the  rest,  overtook  horse  and  rider,  and  drew 
both  back  into  the  outstretched  arms  of  death."  This  fate  was 
very  necessary  to  the  story,  as  it  rendered  an  interview  of  the 
hero  by  another  impossible. 

He  was  called  the  "  Paul  Revere  of  Johnstown."  The  name 
of  the  imaginary  hero  was  Daniel  Peyton.  Everybody  outside  of 
Conemaugh  Valley  believed  the  story.  Consequently,  great  sur- 
prise was  expressed  that  the  people  did  not  heed  the  warning  and 
escape  to  the  hills — that  they  could  be  deaf  to  it  thus  publicly 
and  heroically  given.  We  were  condemned  for  our  supposed 
heedlessness  or  unbelief. 

The  answer  which  we  make  to  this  is,  that  there  is  not  one 
word  of  truth  in  the  story  from  beginning  to  end.  There  was  not 
a  single  incident  which  could  authorize  or  justify  the  tragic  story. 
The  great  daily  that  published  it  was  either  imposed  upon,  or 
committed  a  gross  fraud  upon  the  world  and  perpetrated  a  cruel 
myth  upon  our  people.  Close  investigation  has  not  been  able  to 
locate  a  Daniel  Peyton  anywhere  in  Conemaugh  Valley.  The 
circumstances  were  all  against  the  possibility  of  such  an  occurrence. 

The  South  Fork  dam  and  lake  are  nine  miles  in  a  straight 
line  from  Johnstown,  and  over  fourteen  miles  by  the  turnpike. 
This  road  is  the  only  way  by  which  it  is  possible  to  ride  from  the 
lake  to  the  city.  The  greatest  speed  of  a  horse  for  that  distance 
^  would  not  accomplish  the  ride  in  less  than  an  hour.  Then  the  ride 
through  the  streets  of  Johnstown,  provided  man  and  horse  were 
not  exhausted,  would  occupy  fifteen  minutes  more.  Now,  after  the 
dam  broke,  the  flood  traveled  as  fast  as  the  horse  could  run.  The 
time  of  its  passage  was  about  twenty-five  minutes,  and  the  entire 
destruction  occupied  not  more  than  half  an  hour.  But  the  streets 
of  Johnstown,  besides  the  greater  part  of  the  Valley  road,  were 
under  water.  During  the  hours  when  this  famous  hero  is  said  to 
have  galloped  through  them,  there  were  from  three  to  ten  feet  of 


408  UNQUALIFIED  CONTRADICTION. 

water  in  all  our  streets ;  and  the  housekeepers  were  engaged  in 
removing  carpets  and  furniture  from  their  lower  floors.  The 
impossibility  of  a  horse  galloping  through  Johnstown  between  noon 
and  4  o'clock  is  at  once  apparent. 

The  fact  is,  that  while  there  had  been  for  years  uneasiness  in 
the  public  mind  concerning  the  South  Fork  dam,  when  the  flood 
came  it  was  as  sudden  as  an  earthquake.  The  narratives  of  our 
most  calm  and  intellio-ent  citizens  which  this  book  contains  show 
this.  It  was,  as  they  all  describe  it,  "  One  moment  life,  the  next 
one  death." 

Rev.  D.  M.  Miller,  pastor  of  the  Conemaugh  Presbyterian 
Church,  in  a  letter,  says:  "  In  regard  to  the  warning  having  been 
given  at  Conemaugh  Telegraph  Station,  the  operators  on  duty  that 
day  affirm  that  they  had  received  no  intelligence  in  regard  to  the 
reservoir  having  given  way;  that  the  first  intimation  they  had  was 
the  sight  of  the  rolling  mass  coming  down  the  narrow  valley  above 
them,  apparently  thirty  or  forty  feet  high  ;  they  dropped  their  in- 
struments and  fled  from  the  signal-tower,  barely  in  time  to  reach 
the  elevated  ground,  wading  knee  deep  in  water  much  of  the 
way." 

Again,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  trains  were  lying  at  East 
Conemaugh,  detained  by  water  on  the  tracks.  In  them  were  lead- 
ing officials  of  the  company,  and  they  had  sent  ahead  to  ascertain 
the  condition  of  the  road  and  the  prospect  of  "  going  ahead." 
East  Conemaugh  is  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  miles  nearer  the 
dam  than  Johnstown.  Nothing  at  this  point  was  seen  or  heard  of 
the  furious  and  fateful  rider. 

Miss  Ehrenfeldt,  the  telegraph  operator  at  South  Fork  Station, 
gives  this  account:  "Between  ii  and  12  o'clock,  a.m.,  that  day, 
a  man  came  into  the  station-tower  and  said  I  should  telegraph 
to  Johnstown  that  the  dam  would  break.  He  seemed  very  much 
excited,  and  could  not  tell  exactly  what  he  wanted.     Communica- 


REAL  HEROISM. 


409 


tion  with  Johnstown  was  cut  off  after  the  middle  of  the  forenoon, 
and  no  message  could  go  farther  than  Mineral  Point.  I  tried  re- 
peatedly to  get  the  office  at  Johnstown,  but  failed." 

Thus  writes  Rev.  G.  W.  Brown  to  me,  inclosing  the  remarks 
of  Miss  Ehrenfeldt:  "The  people  of  Johnstown  did  not  receive 
authoritative  notice  that  the  dam  either  would  break  or  had  broken, 
and  did  not  deserve  the  condemnation  passed  upon  them." 

For  the  heroism  of  the  event  we  must  look  at  those  brave 
men  and  women  and  children  who,  while  being  whirled  and  dashed 
about  in  the  angry  waters,  and  before  the  awful  wreck  that  rushed 
down  upon  them,  were  bearing  up  and  helping  others  to  cling  to 
means  of  rescue.  God  only  knows  how  much  of  this  heroism 
was  enacted.  We  know  of.  some  who  saved  others  when  it  risked 
their  own  rescue  ;  we  do  know  of  some  who  died  in  the  act  of 
saving  others.  This  was  a  greater,  nobler  heroism  than  that  on 
horseback,  real  or  imagined. 

To  clinch  this  refutation  of  the  story,  the  following  prominent 
citizens  have  given  me  authority  herewith  to  attach  their  names  as 
uniting  with  me  in  this  endeavor  to  disabuse  the  public  mind,  and 
relieve  our  people  from  the  imputation  upon  their  good  sense  and 
common  prudence : 


John  Henderson, 

F.  D.  Jolly, 
Chas.  Zimmerman, 
Prof.  F.  B.  Cunz, 
a.  w.  luckhardt, 
Sol.   Reineman, 

G.  W.  Mapledoram, 
C.  O.  Wilson, 
John  Thomas, 

L.  M.  WooLF  &  Son, 
Will.  B.  Dibert. 


Kramer  Bros., 

C.  Simon, 

J.  Earl  Ode, 

Irwin    Horrell,  Burgess 

of  Johnstown, 
J.  E.  Sedlmeyer, 
F,  H.  Roberts, 
John  D.  Roberts  Casti, 
Curt  G.  Campbell, 
Alex.  N.  Hart. 


4IO 


THE   VIRGIN'S  STATUE. 


THE  MIRACLE  ABOUT  THE  VIRGIN'S  STATUE. 

One  of  the  most  preposterous  of  the  stories  that  were  perpe- 
trated upon  the  wondering  world  was  that  of  an  alleged  miracle  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  St.  Mary,  Cambria  City.  The  waters 
rushed  into  the  church  shortly  after  the  congregation  had  retired 
from  a  service  in  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  floor  was  sub- 
merged, the  pews  upset,  and  things  pretty  generally  scattered  and 
damaged.  On  the  next  morninof  the  statue  of  the  Virmn,  which 
had  been  decorated  with  flowers,  wreaths  and  lace,  appeared  unin- 
jured. The  report  added  that  this  was  so,  although  the  water  had 
risen  several  feet  above  the  height  of  the  statue.  This  created 
such  wide  interest  that  I  received  inquiries  from  distant  parts  of 
the  country  about  it.  One  theological  student  was  greatly  con- 
cerned, and  wanted  my  explanation  of  the  phenomenon. 

The  phenomenon  explained  itself.  The  statue  and  pedestal 
were  made  of  wood.  Consequently,  they  floated  on  the  surface  of 
the  water.  The  pedestal,  being  the  heavier  portion,  kept  the  statue 
in  a  perpendicular  position  above  the  waters,  and  when  they 
subsided,  it  settled  down,  showing  little  effects  of  the  flood.  It 
would  have  been  more  of  a  miracle  if  it  had  been  submero^ed  and 
wet  and  bedraggled  like  the  other  objects  ;  for  it  is  the  nature  of 
wood  to  float ;  and  if  it  had  not  floated,  that  would  have  been 
contrary  to  nature,  and,  therefore,  a  miracle. 

Our  intelligent  Roman  Catholic  citizens  were  greatly  cha- 
grined that  they  were  supposed  to  be  so  silly  as  to  accept  this  most 
natural  occurrence  as  a  miracle.  One  of  them  said  to  me  :  "  Do 
the  people  of  this  country  think  we  are  fools  to  believe  such 
folly?"  Yet  in  a  book  on  the  Johnstown  Flood  there  is  this  con- 
cluding sentence  to  the  account :  "  Every  one  who  has  seen  the 
statue  and  its  surroundings  is  firmly  convinced  that  the  incident 
was  a  miraculous  one,  and  even  to  the  most  skeptical  the  affair 
savors  of  the  supernatural." 


THE  BIBLE-BURNING  STORY.  4 1  I 

BIBLES  BURNED  AND  FAITH  ABANDONED. 

This  dispatch  was  telegraphed  to  the  press  on  June  loth, 
eleven  days  after  the  flood : 

"  The  people  of  Johnstown  have  lost  all  their  faith  in  Provi- 
dence. Many  of  them  have  thrown  away  their  Bibles  since  the 
disaster,  while  others  have  openly  burned  them.  They  make  no 
concealment  of  this. 

"  During  the  flood,  one  of  the  most  upright  and  devout  mer- 
chants of  the  town  was  rescued  as  by  a  miracle.  It  was  with  con- 
siderable difficulty  that  he  was  revived,  but  as  he  was  lying  on  the 
bed  a  clergyman  who  was  present  dropped  on  his  knees  and 
earnestly  began  to  pray. 

"'Leave  me,'  cried  the  merchant.  'This  is  no  time  to  pray 
or  thank  God.     I  never  want  to  see  your  face  again.' 

"A  lady  who  had  lost  her  husband  and  four  children  was 
gathering  together  the  relics  of  her  home,  when  she  came  across 
the  family  Bible  containing  the  record  of  her  birth,  marriage  and 
births  of  her  children.  A  stranger  happened  to  pass,  and,  tearing 
the  records  out,  she  proffered  the  book  to  him.  The  man  hap- 
pened to  be  a  clergyman. 

" '  Do  you  realize,  madam,  what  you  are  doing  ?'  asked  the 
minister. 

"'Perfectly,'  was  the  reply.  'I  have  no  further  use  for  that 
book.  I  have  always  tried  to  be  a  consistent  Christian  woman. 
I  brought  up  my  four  girls  as  strictly  as  I  had  been,  but  I  cannot 
read  that  book  any  more.'  " 

As  this  went  through  the  entire  press  of  the  country,  the 
presumption  was  that  it  was  an  Associated  Press  dispatch.  If  so, 
its  managers  or  agents  are  deserving  of  severest  reprehension.  If 
there  were  any  individual  cases  like  the.  above,  or  if  the  cases 
cited  were  genuine,  this  did  not  sanction  this  wholesale  slander 
upon  and  insult  to  the  common  sense  and  Christian  faith  of  the  peo- 


412  A  UTHOR  OF  THE  SLANDER. 

pie  of  Johnstown.  Did  the  sender  of  that  dispatch  suppose  that 
people  who  had  been  trained  in  the  Word  of  God  in  the  home  and 
church,  and  who  had  proved  its  power  and  consolation  in  all  the 
experiences  of  life,  would  throw  it  away  in  the  hour  when  most 
they  needed  it?  Had  he  so  little  conception  of  the  nature  and 
strength  of  that  conviction,  wrought  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the 
heart  of  the  Christian,  to  suppose  that  any  calamity,  any  suf- 
fering, any  death  could  eradicate  it  from  that  heart  and  convert 
him  to  infidelity  ? 

The  fact  is,  infidelity  inspired  that  dispatch.  Those  cases 
never  occurred. 

The  very  terms  of  the  dispatch,  the  particularity  of  the  cir- 
cumstances described,  the  animus  that  runs  through  its  lines, 
plainly  indicate  that  it  was  the  work  of  an  enemy  to  the  Bible  and 
the  Christian  ministry.  It  was  the  inspiration  of  the  same  being 
who  said  to  the  Lord  that  if  Job  would  lose  all  his  wealth,  his 
children,  his  health,  if  he  became  involved  in  disaster,  he  would 
give  up  his  faith.  This  is  the  charge  of  Satan  against  the  religion 
of  God : 

"Doth  Job  fear  God  for  naught?  Hast  thou  not  made  an 
hedge  about  him,  and  about  his  house,  and  about  all  that  he  hath 
on  every  side  ?  Thou  hast  blessed  the  work  of  his  hands,  and  his 
substance  is  increased  in  the  land:  But  put  forth  thine  hand  now, 
and  touch  all  that  he  hath,  and  he  will  curse  Thee  to  Thy  face." 
This  was  Satan's  slander  upon  the  faithfulness  of  God  and  the 
strength  of  His  righteousness  to  uphold  His  children.  Satan  meant 
that  religion  is  a  matter  of  gain :  God's  righteousness  a  spider's 
web  that  would  snap  at  the  first  strain.  Yet  Job,  when  suffering 
all  the  complicated  calamities  of  life,  when  he  let  go  everything 
else,  cried,  "  My  righteousness  I  hold  fast,  and  will  not  let  it  go." 
And  his  experience  has  been  verifi-ed  by  every  man  and  woman 
with  a  true  faith  in  God.     Witness  those  prayers  in  the  darkness 


E  VIDENCES  OF  FAITH.  4 1  3 

of  Friday  night  in  Alma  Hall,  in  the  churches  and  other  places 
of  refuge.  Witness  that  saintly  woman  who  was  being  swept  to 
her  death  in  the  waters,  softly  singing  as  she  floated  down  : 

"Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly ; 
While  the  raging  billows  roll, 
While  the  tempest  still  is  high." 

Witness  the  gathering  again  of  the  people  in  their  sanctuaries,  and 
renewing  their  vows  to  God  and  their  Redeemer.  This  press 
dispatch  was  inspired  by  the  same  animosity  with  which  Satan 
assailed  the  religion  of  Job. 

The  author  wanted  to  make  the  world  believe  that  the  religion 
of  the  Bible  is  a  sham.  He  used  these  poor  stricken,  flooded 
people  of  Johnstown,  who  gave  him  no  occasion,  to  cast  his  as- 
persions upon  the  word  and  faith  of  God.  The  unbeliever  takes 
up  the  charge  of  Satan  and  says,  "  Men  are  Christians  for  the  sake 
of  gain  or  power  or  influence.  They  do  not  serve  God  for 
naught.  Take  away  the  Christian's  health  or  wealth,  and  you  will 
take  away  his  religion.  Tear  down  his  life,  and  he  will  tear  down 
his  altar.  Touch  his  flesh  and  bone,  and  he  will  curse  thee  to  thy 
face."  This  lie  did  not  originate  after  the  Johnstown  flood.  The 
devil  had  been  going  up  and  down  in  the  earth  tossing  it  to  and 
fro.      He  who  repeats  it  only  echoes  the  charge  of  his  master. 

Part  of  that  dispatch  was  designed  to  strike  at  the  ministry. 
We  are  not  ignorant  of  the  device.  The  author  overreached  him- 
self  when  he  presented  that  alleged  remark  of  the  "  most  upright 
and  devout  merchant  to  the  minister."  He  had  no  conception  of 
real  religion.  If  he  had  he  would  have  known  better  than  to  have 
made  such  a  remark  come  from  an  "  upright  and  devout  man  ;" 
for  the  first  characteristic  of  true  religion  is  to  be  sanctified  and 
strengthened  by  suffering.     The  religion  of  Christianity  was  born 


414  ^^^  FLOOD  COMMISSION'' S  WORK. 

in  suffering;   and   its  Author  was  "  made  perfect — in  His  redeem- 
ing work — through  suffering," 

It  so  happened  that  the  passing  man  to  whom  the  enraged 
lady  give  the  Bible  after  she  had  torn  out  the  record  of  her  birth 
was  also  a  clergyman.  How  very  minutely  the  scene  was  pre- 
sented and  the  words  recorded.  That  scene  was  born  in  the  head 
of  the  author  of  the  dispatch;  and  in  front  of  that  head  it  does  not 
require  close  inspection  to  see  the  incipient  horns  of  "  the  slan- 
derer of  God's  children,"  No  Christian  woman  could  or  would 
have  spoken  and  acted  as  he  alleges  this  one  did.  We  have  dili- 
gently inquired  for  the  merchant,  the  minister  and  the  lady,  and 
have  not  been  able  to  find  or  hear  of  them. 


6. THE    FLOOD    COMMISSION'S    WORK. 

On  Thursday,  Januar}^  i6th,  1890,  the  Flood  Commission  held 
a  meeting  in  Philadelphia,  Governor  Beaver  presided.  The  other 
members  present  were  J,  S,  Scott,  S,  S.  Marvin,  Reuben  Miller, 
of  Pittsburgh  ;  Francis  B.  Reeves,  Robert  C.  Ogden  and  John  Y. 
Huber,  of  Philadelphia,  The  Commission  took  up  the  question  of 
caring  for  the  orphans  left  by  the  flood.  There  are  thirty-two 
children  on  the  hands  of  the  Commission  who  lost  their  parents  in 
the  ofreat  disaster. 

Mr.  Reeves  said  that  he  had  made  arranofements  with  a  trust 
company  which  would  insure  the  sum  of  $50  a  year  to  each  orphan 
under  the  care  of  the  Commission.  This  arrangement  contem- 
plated  the  depositing  with  the  company  the  sum  of  $98,900,  The 
Commission  approved  of  this  plan,  and  appropriated  that  sum  for 
the  orphans'  fund.  There  have  already  been  paid  to  the  guardians 
of  the  orphans  $16,100  ;  so  the  fund  actually  is  $115,000.  This 
fund,  it  is  claimed,  will  just  work  itself  out  so  that  when  the  last 
child  becomes  16  years  of  age  the  fund  will  have  been  exhausted. 


SECRETARY  KREMERS  REPORT. 


415 


Secretary  Kremer's  report  showed  that  there  had  been  left 
by  the  flood  1 16  widows,  to  whom  have  been  paid  ^179,471,  and  to 
whom,  for  their  children,  will  be  paid  ^95,250  in  annual  payments 
ranging  as  the  number  and  ages  of  their  children. 

The  question  of  erecting  and  equipping  a  permanent  hospital 
in  Johnstown  for  the  benefit  of  the  Conemaugh  Valley  was  dis- 
cussed and  agreed  upon.  There  were  appropriated  for  this  purpose 
$40,000. 

Francis  B.  Reeves  gave  out  the  cash  statement  of  the 
Commission  to  January  15th,  together  with  the  appropriations 
mkde  at  the  meeting"  as  follows  : 


RECEIPTS. 


Amount  received  by  Governor  directly ;^  1,225, 872  83 

Amount  received  from  the  Philadelphia  Committee  ....       600,000  00 
Amount  received  from  the  Pittsburgh  Committee       .     .     .  560,000  00 

Amount  received  from  the  New  York  Committee    ....       516,199  85 


Total  cash  receipts  by  Commission ^2,902,072  68 

EXPENDITURES. 

Appropriations  and  expenditures,  Johnstown ^2,430,393  69 

Expenditures  in  other  parts  of  the  State 232,264  45 

Distributed  as  specially  directed  by  donors 2,271   85 

Office   expenses,  Harrisburg 1.398  42 

General  expenses 1,318  70 

First  annuity  to  orphans 16,100  00 

2,683.747   II 
Cash  on  deposit  in  Harrisburg 218,325   57 

^2,902,072  6% 


4 1  6  SECRE  TAR  Y  KREMER'S  RE  FOR  T. 

Above  balance  deposited,  Harrisburg    .     .     .       ^218,325   57 
Undistributed  in  Johnstown 36,384  03 

Total  money  on  deposit ;^254,709  60 

Less   appropriated  to  other  parts  of  State 

waiting  payment 17.735   55 

Net    unapplied ^236,974  05 

Appropriations  made  this  day  : 

Sundry  claims  ordered  paid ^22,442  65 

Appropriated  for  Williamsport  Hospital  .     .  5, 000  00 

Appropriated  for  Johnstown  Hospital     .     .     .  40,000  00                       • 
Annuities  to  orphans    ....       ;^ii5,ooo  00 

Less  first  payment 16,100  00 

^98,900  00 

Balance  at  this  date 70,631  40 

^236,974  05 

J.  B.  Scott,  in  speaking  of  the  money  distributed,  said:  "  The 
:$2, 430,000  distributed  in  Johnstown  by- the  Commission  does  not 
include  the  money  sent  to  the  local  finance  committee,  which  is  in 
the  aggregate  somewhere  between  ^100,000  and  ^150,000.  Nor 
does  it  include  the  money  expended  by  the  Pittsburgh  Committee 
before  the  Flood  Relief  Commission  was  organized,  which 
amounted  to  nearly  $250,000.  Then  the  money  distributed  by 
beneficial  societies  and  private  parties  has  not  been  taken  into 
consideration.  On  the  whole,  therefore,  there  has  been  about 
$3,000,000  left  in  the  Conemaugh  Valley  since  the  first  of  last 
une. 

Secretary  Kremer  said  :  "  The  total  number  known  to  have 
been  lost,  as  far  as  my  information  goes,  is  2,228.  The  morgue 
records  show  about  2,000  bodies  as  passed  through  their  care. 
During  the  last  sixty  days  the  Commission  has  had  transferred 


LESSON  OF  THE  FLOOD. 


417 


from  the  various  cemeteries,  to  its  plot  in  Grand  View  Cemetery, 
741  bodies.  All  but  87  of  them  were  unknown,  and  there  were 
about  40  identified  by  their  clothing  during  the  removal." 


7. THE  LESSON  OF  THE  FLOOD. 

The  one  great  lesson  which  this  disaster  teaches  and  enjoins 
upon  us  is  the  wisdom,  duty  and  necessity  of  constant  watchful- 
ness of  ourselves  and  fidelity  in  the  discharge  of  present  duty. 
Watching,  working  and  waiting  ;  at  morn,  at  noon,  at  night,  ever 
ready  to  labor  on  or  to  quit  at  the  Lord's  command.  Death, 
wherever  and  whenever,  and  in  whatever  form  it  occurs,  terminates 
our  earthly  career  and  fixes  our  eternal  state.  "  But  the  end  of  all 
things  is  at  hand;  be  ye  therefore  sober,  and  watch  unto  prayer," 
said  the  Apostle  Peter.  The  best  preparation  for  the  future  life  is 
the  sober  and  watchful  occupation  of  the  present. 

This  has  never  been  better  expressed  than  in  Whittier's  poem 
on  Abraham  Davenport : 

May  Day,  1780,  that  there  fell 

Over  the  bloom  and  sweet  life  of  the  spring, 

Over  the  fresh  earth  and  the  heaven  of  noon 

A  horror  of  great  darkness  like  the  night, 

In  day,  of  which  the  Norland  sages  tell — 

The  twilight  of  the  gods. 

Men  prayed  and  women  wept ;  all  ears  grew 

Sharp  to  hear  the  doom-blast  of  the  trumpet  shatter 

The  black  sky. 

*****  *  * 

Meanwhile  in  the  old  State  House,  dim  as  ghosts, 

Sat  the  law-givers  of  Connecticut, 

Trembling  beneath  their  legislative  robes. 

"  It  is  the  Last  Day  !     Let  us  adjourn," 

Some  said ;  and  then  as  if  with  one  accord 

All  eyes  were  turned  to  Abraham  Davenport. 

He  rose,  slow  cleaving  with  his  steady  voice 

The  intolerable  hush.     "  This  well  may  be 


41  8  LAST  WORDS. 

The  Day  of  Judgment  which  the  world  awaits ; 
Be  it  so  or  not,  I  only  know 
My  present  duty,  and  my  Lord's  command, 
To  occupy  till  He  come.     So  at  the  post 
Where  He  hath  set  me  in  His  providence, 
I  chose  for  one  to  meet  Him  face  to  face — 
No  faithless  servant  frightened  from  my  task, 
But  ready  when  the  Lord  of  heaven  calls, 
And,  therefore,  with  all  reverence,  I  would  say, 
Let  God  do  His  work ;  we  will  see  to  ours : 
Bring  in  the  candles." 


VII. 
HISTORICAL  SKETCH   OF  JOHNSTOWN. 


BY    W.    HORACE    ROSE, 


[The  subjoined  sketch  was  prepared  by  its  author  in  the 
latter  part  of  1880,  and,  at  the  time,  was  published  in  a  catalogue 
used  at  the  "  Methodist  Loan  Exhibition,"  which  catalogue  was 
only  locally  circulated.  It  is  doubtful  whether  a  half-dozen  of  the 
pamphlets  are  now  extant.  Being  a  brief  and  concise  history  of 
the  rise  and  progress  of  Johnstown,  it  is  here  inserted,  by  per- 
mission of  its  author,  as  originally  prepared,  with  the  alteration  of 
a  few  sentences  made  necessary  to  correspond  with  the  change  in 
the  number  of  industries  and  increased  population  in  the  valley  at 
the  date  of  the  great  flood.  It  is  a  faithful  sketch  of  the  city,  and 
illustrates  the  habits  and  characteristics  of  the  industrious,  pros- 
perous and  happy  inhabitants  of  the  Conemaugh  Valley,  which, 
in  less  than  an  hour,  was  made  a  place  of  mourning  and  a  wilder- 
ness of  waste  ! — d.  j.  b.] 

Whether  the  "sugar-loaf"  on  the  hill-top,  south  of  the  point 
of  confluence  of  the  Stony  Creek  and  Little  Conemaugh  was  the 
work  of  the  "  Mound-builders,"  or  an  altar,  or  a  burial-heap  of  the 
first  of  the  Indian  tribes  who  peopled  the  regions  of  Laurel  Hill,  is  a 
matter  of  conjecture,  and  the  truth  of  the  cause  of  the  peculiar  eleva- 
tion will  remain,  to  this  generation  at  least,  undetermined.  But 
certain  it  is  that,  on  the  flat  piece  of  ground  lying  between  the  waters 

(419) 


420  '  ORIGINAL  NAME. 

of  the  two  Streams,  at  the  base  of  a  foot-hill  of  the  Allegheny- 
Mountains,  was,  long  years  ago,  located  an  Indian  town.  When 
it  was  laid  out,  how  many  wigwams  it  contained,  where  the  corn- 
patch  was  located  ;  at  what  spot  the  flagstone,  on  which  the  hominy 
was  pounded,  lay  ;  where  the  war-dance  was  performed,  or  the 
torture-stake  planted,  is  now  unknown.  Local  antiquaries,  including 
the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Local  History  of  the  Cambria 
Scientific  Institute,  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  name  of  the  town. 
Some  claim  that  it  was  called  Kickapoo,  others  Kickneapawling ; 
many  maintain  that  Old  Town  was  the  correct  name,  while  a  few — 
and  they  seem  to  have  the  records,  so  far  as  the  records  exist, 
with  them — that  the  true  name  was  "  Conemaugh  Old  Town." 

The  earliest  record  contained  in  the  Land  Office  shows  that 
on  April  3d,  1769,  one  Charles  Campbell  entered,  at  Lancaster, 
an  application  for  a  tract  of  vacant  land  on  the  east  side  of 
Conemaugh  Creek,  between  the  Allegheny  and  Laurel  Hill,  in 
Bedford  County,  called  "  Conemaugh  Old  Town,"  which  contained 
249  acres  and  allowance  of  6  per  cent.;  so  that  those  who  knew 
more  of  the  town  and  its  inhabitants,  about  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  than  our  local  antiquaries,  put  on  record  their  knowledge 
of  names  ;  and  people  who  are  not  overly  curious  will  settle  down 
to  the  conclusion  that  Campbell  gave  to  the  Land  Office  the 
proper  name  of  the  tract,  for  the  right  to  purchase  wliich  he 
presented  his  application. 

Several  conveyances  of  land  were  made,  the  patent  for  the 
same  being  issued  April  26th,  1788,  to  James  McLanahan,  who, 
on  September  30th,  1793,  conveyed  the  tract  to  Joseph  Johnson, 
alias  Shantz,  or  Johns. 

The  exact  reason  Mr.  Johns,  as  he  was  afterward  known, 
gave  for  not  knowing  his  own  name  has  not  been,  as  yet,  settled. 
Eight  years  after  his  purchase  he  laid  out  on  the  lower  end  of  his 
tract,  at  the   confluence  of  the  two    streams,  a    town,    calling   it 


THE  EARL  V  SE  TTL  EMENT.  4  2  I 

Conemaugh.  This  town  extended  no  farther  eastward  than 
FrankHn  Street,  but  contained  eight  streets,  six  alleys,  a  market 
square,  a  playground,  a  graveyard,  a  square  for  churches  and 
schools,  and  a  reservation  of  four  lots  for  county  buildings.  The 
charter  was  recorded  at  Somerset,  the  land  being  at  that  date 
within  Somerset  County. 

Johns  was  looking  forward  to  the  time,  not  when  his  little 
town  was  to  be  noted  as  a  great  manufacturing  city,  but  a  stately 
county  seat  for  the  new  county  then  being  called  for  by  the  resi- 
dents of  Northern  Somerset.  Conemauo-h  was  at  the  head  of 
water  navigation  westward.  Blooms  were  hauled  over  the 
mountain  by  way  of  the  Frankstown  Road,  and  then  shipped  in 
flat-boats  down  the  Conemaugh  River.  At  an  early  day  a  forge 
was  built  on  the  Stony  Creek,  the  dam  being  located  opposite 
what  is  now  Levergood  Avenue.  In  1828  the  work  on  the  main 
line  of  State  improvements  was  begun,  and  Conemaugh  was 
beginning  to  assume  importance  as  the  head  of  the  western 
division  of  the  canal  and  the  terminus  of  the  Allegheny  Portage 
Railroad.  In  January,  1831,  the  town  was  duly  incorporated  into 
a  borough  by  Act  of  the  Legislature.  On  July  1 1  th,  1 842,  the  name 
was,  by  Act  of  Assembly,  changed  to  Johnstown.  Meanwhile 
Peter  Levergood  had  become  proprietor,  and  laid  out  the  town 
above  Franklin  Street,  and  the  lots  which  form  what  is  now  the 
borough  of  Conemaugh,  erected  by  the  Act  of  March  23d,  1849. 

Back  as  far  as  1832,  prospecting  for  iron  ore  began,  and 
resulted  in  the  erection  of  furnace  after  furnace  around  Johnstown, 
until  it  became  the  center  of  numerous  works  conducted  by 
George  S.  King,  a  resident  of  the  town,  in  company  with  the 
famous  iron  master  and  pioneer  furnace  man,  Dr.  Shoenberger  ; 
Cambria  or  "Calico"  furnace,  as  it  was  called,  owing  to  the 
mode  of  paying  the  employees,  located  three  miles  northwest  of 
Johnstown,  being  the  first  erection  near  the  town. 


/j.  2  2  GRO  WTH  OF  JOHNS  TO  WN. 

But  the  growth  of  Johnstown  was  slow,  and,  indeed,  when  the 
Central  Railroad  was  built,  and,  in  1852,  the  business  on  the  canal 
was  practically  abandoned,  it  looked  gloomy  enough  for  owners 
of  lots,  nothing  but  the  trade  of  the  furnaces  being  left  to  support 
the  town.  In  1853  Mr.  George  S.  King  succeeded  in  his  great 
work  of  organizing  the  Cambria  Iron  Company,  and  the  beginning 
of  a  new  era  dawned  upon  Johnstown.  While  there  was  some 
trouble  in  the  management  of  the  great  iron  works,  and  the 
industry  seemed  likely  to  fail,  it  was  the  foundation  for  the  colossal 
establishment  which,  under  its  present  efficient  control  and  man- 
agement, is  now  of  world-wide  renown. 

The  population  of  Johnstown  proper  is  not  a  fair  estimate  of 
the  place.  Over  30,000  people  are  located  in  the  irregular 
valleys  of  the  Conemaugh  and  Stony  Creek,  but  are  divided  into 
ten  boroughs  or  municipalities,  to  wit:  Johnstown,  Conemaugh, 
Millville,  Cambria,  Coopersdale,  Woodvale,  Prospect,  East  Cone- 
maugh, Franklin  and  Grubtown ;  and  three  towns,  Moxham, 
Morrellville  and  Walnut  Grove,  either  of  sufficient  size  to  be  incor- 
porated, all  of  which  boroughs  and  towns  are  collectively  called 
Johnstown,  as  they  are  immediately  contiguous  or  divided  only 
by  the  streams  in  their  meanderings  through  the  mountains. 

Located  in  the  several  boroughs  are  twenty-six  churches, 
some  of  them  stately  edifices  ;  twenty-two  buildings,  containing 
fifty-three  rooms,  are  used  for  the  purposes  of  the  common  schools, 
while  for  select  and  parochial  schools  three  buildings  and  sixteen 
rooms  are  used. 

A  beautiful  and  expensive  building,  the  free  gift  of  the  Cam- 
bria Iron  Company,  is  dedicated  to  public  use  as  a  library,  its 
shelves  being  filled  with  well-selected  books. 

A  rolling-mill,  two  steel  works,  seven  furnaces,  with  a  host  of 
shops  of  different  kinds,  the  property  of  the  Cambria  Iron  Com- 
pany, a  wire-drawing  mill,  a  spring  manufactory,  two  barbed-wire 


INDUSTRIES  OF  JOHNSTOWN.  423 

■works,  a  tannery,  two  steam  brick  works,  a  steam  fire-brick  and 
cement  works,  a  pottery,  two  woolen  factories,  two  grist  mills,  five 
planing  mills,  two  machine  shops,  two  foundries,  and  the  plant 
of  the  Street  Railway  Company,  consisting  of  a  rolling-mill,  with 
divers  machine  shops,  foundries  and  other  divisions,  with  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  shops,  are  among  the  industries  giving 
employment  to  thousands  of  sturdy  men  who  dwell  on  the  site  of 
the  old  Indian  village. 

A  street  car  line  with  a  rapid  transit  road  from  Moxham  to 
Johnstown  connects  the  several  towns  together,  affording  easy 
and  rapid  communication.  Nine  iron  bridges  at  different  points 
span  the  two  rivers,  affording  wagon  communications  between  the 
towns,  to  say  nothing  of  the  bridges  used  by  the  Cambria  Iron 
Company  on  their  lines  of  railroad  which  gird  the  towns. 

A  gas  plant  and  an  electric  light  plant  furnish  the  means  of 
lighting  the  streets,  dwellings  and  stores  ;  while  natural  gas  for 
manufacturing  purposes  and  heating  dwellings  is  carried  a  dis- 
tance of  forty  miles,  and  distributed  through  the  main  portion  of 
the  valley. 

The  people  are  busy,  industrious  and  prosperous.  There  is 
perhaps  no  town  of  its  size  in  the  Union  where  there  are  so  few 
professional  loafers — everybody  seems  not  only  willing  to  work, 
but  has  employment.  It  is  essentially  a  town  of  homes,  the  ma- 
jority of  the  married  operatives  at  the  several  industries  being  the 
owners  of  their  residences.  For  this  reason  the  town  is  orderly, 
riots  and  disorderly  conduct  being  the  exception. 

Located  amidst  the  mountains,  with  two  clear  streams  tread- 
ing their  way  through  the  winding  gorges,  the  scenery  about 
Johnstown  is  of  that  kind  where  the  eye  is  ever  resting  on  chang- 
ing views.  The  hill-sides,  for  the  most  part,  are  still  covered  with 
trees,  and  the  carol  of  wild  birds  mineles  with  the  music  of  a 
thousand  automatic  machines  in  the  valley  below  ! 


424  ^  PROSPEROUS  PLACE. 

The  town  is  supplied  with  pure  water  by  means  of  pipes  laid 
from  mountain  streams.  The  climate  is  good  ;  and  health,  pros- 
perity and  contentment  are  written  on  the  countenances  of  the 
people. 

But  a  span  divides  two  great  epochs  in  the  history  of  the 
valley,  guarded  by  the  silent  sentinel  knob  on  the  southern  hill- 
top ! 

Where  once  the  wild  war-whoop  broke  the  stillness,  and  was 
echoed  back  by  the  high  hills,  is  now  heard  the  steady  hum  of  in- 
dustry, while  those  echoing  rocks  are  now  broken  to  give  entrance 
to  the  locomotive  which  brings  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth  the 
"black  diamonds"  dug  by  a  race  more  rugged  than  the  fleet- 
footed  braves,  who,  in  the  time  past,  chased  the  wild  deer  across 
the  valley  or  slew  the  bear  on  the  mountain-side  ! 

Then  the  village  was  warned  of  the  foe's  approach  by  the 
swift-footed  runner — now  the  thousands  of  workmen  are  directed 
by  the  telegraph  and  telephone !  Then  the  stealthy  savage 
located  the  prowling  wolf  by  the  glare  of  its  fierce  eyes  as  it  by 
night  prowled  about  the  outskirts  of  the  village  of  wigwams — 
now  on  the  same  ground,  under  towering  stacks  and  lofty  iron 
roofs,  amid  the  rattle  of  machinery,  the  rush  of  steam,  and  the 
scintillation  of  myriads  of  metallic  stars,  the  engineer  guides  his 
locomotive  by  the  effulgence  of  the  electric  light. 


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